Global supply chains involve numerous organizations and transactions and are becoming increasingly digital. At the core of each of these digital transactions are trust-based interactions with partners. As such, organizations need a comprehensive system for the verification and management of digital business identities that is both dynamic and trustworthy – but current digital identity management systems are costly, inefficient, and may not be sustainable. This white paper lays out foundations for such a system, exploring considerations, proposed principles and recommendations for supply-chain organizations and governments in managing the growing complexity of the digital identities involved in global trade. The paper also introduces and investigates the possibilities enabled by a digital Global Trade Identity (GTID) for legal entities participating in global supply chains – a necessary step in digitizing global trade.