| U.S.
makers of telecommunication equipment now can certify their
products in the United States and ship directly to Canadian
markets, thanks to the latest step in carrying out a 1998
trade agreement. This streamlining of the regulatory approval
process results from the Canadian government’s recent
recognition of seven U.S. testing and inspection organizations
that had been recommended as “certification bodies”
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Two-way
trade of telecommunications equipment between the two neighbors
totals about $7 billion a year.
Industry
Canada, a cabinet-level department, recently recognized seven
NIST-recommended U.S. testing and inspection organizations
to certify, prior to export, that U.S.-made telecommunications
products meet Canadian requirements. Canada’s recognition
of these so-called “certification bodies” simplifies
the regulatory approval process and provides U.S. manufacturers
of wire and wireless telecommunications products with an uninterrupted
path to the Canadian market.
Since
2000, manufacturers could furnish test results from approved
U.S. laboratories as evidence of compliance, but Canadian
officials continued to perform the final evaluation and certification
of products. Before 2000, procedures for certifying U.S. telecommunications
exports were performed entirely by Canadian organizations.
For
Canada and the United States, the latest simplifying step
nearly completes the second phase of a six-year-old trade
agreement among members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation,
or APEC. The neighbors are the first of 21 APEC economies
to implement the second phase of the 1998 APEC Mutual Recognition
Arrangement on Telecommunication Equipment.
The MRA
initiated actions to enable mutual acceptance of test data,
inspection results and, ultimately, certifications that products
conform to a trading partner’s regulatory requirements.
It was not intended to supplant the standards and regulations
of individual economies.
However,
requirements of different economies may have many similarities.
A consequence often has been costly and time-consuming duplicative
testing of products shipped to foreign markets.
The seven
U.S. certification bodies approved by Industry Canada underwent
rigorous evaluations by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI). ANSI accredited the organizations after reviewing
their procedures for assessing conformance to international
and Canadian requirements.
In 2003,
NIST, as the U.S. “designating authority” under
the MRA, reviewed and audited ANSI’s accreditation program
for bodies certifying telecommunications equipment. It endorsed
ANSI as the accreditor of U.S. “certification bodies”
for approving telecommunications equipment for compliance
with Canadian requirements.
In January,
NIST designated the ANSI-accredited certification bodies for
recognition by Industry Canada, which now has notified NIST
of their acceptance.
Industry
Canada has not yet nominated telecommunication certification
bodies for recognition by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), the U.S. regulator of interstate and international
communications. Industry Canada is now evaluating prospective
Canadian certification bodies for eventual FCC recognition,
which would streamline approval of Canadian telecommunications
products intended for the U.S. market.
Stages
of implementation of the MRA vary among the APEC economies.
The United States has implemented the first phase of the agreement,
which allows test results from approved U.S. labs to be considered
as evidence of compliance, with three other APEC economies:
Australia, Singapore and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).
A list
of the Industry Canada-approved labs and a copy of the MRA
can be found (under APEC) at http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/gsig/mra.htm.
As a
non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade and improve the quality of life.
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