Avionics News February 2016 - 73

CAN-TSOA and ETSOA within their own jurisdictions.
It is important to note that TSOAs do not confer installation eligibility. Installation eligibility must be separately
established. Typical ways to establish installation eligibility
include inclusion in the type certificate design, supplemental
type certification of the installation (where it reflects a major
change to type design) and even field approval. This list is not
exclusive - there are many strategies for establishing installation eligibility.
What is the current international
acceptance process?
The U.S. issues letters of TSO design approval. These are
design-only approvals typically issued to applicants when the
applicant intends to produce the articles outside the U.S. The
applicant will obtain production approval from the applicant's
home jurisdiction (where production is being accomplished),
and the U.S. letter of TSO design approval helps to facilitate
entry into the U.S. as an airworthy article.
When the ETSOA or CAN-TSOA article is presented for
import into the U.S., the fact that he U.S. has accepted the
design through the letter of TSO design approval, and accepted
the production oversight through the bilateral, means that
it is accepted into the U.S. as an airworthy article, and it is
considered an "approved" part because parts accepted under a
bilateral agreement are considered to be approved.
For TSO articles produced in other jurisdictions (aside from
the EU and Canada), the FAA will continue to issue letters of
TSO design approval. The FAA may enter into similar agreements with other jurisdictions for reciprocal acceptance.
How will this international
acceptance process change?
Under the new agreement, a manufacturer from Canada or
the EU will no longer need to obtain a letter of TSO design
approval from the other authority; the articles may be accepted
based on mutual recognition of the other authority's authorization. This means that the U.S. will accept articles manufactured under CAN-TSOA and ETSOA without any U.S. letter
of design approval.
Similarly, U.S. manufacturers will not need to mark their
articles with a TCCA CAN-TSO marking or EASA ETSO
marking to export to those markets; however, those units will
still need to be accompanied by 8130-3 tags to the extent
required by the bilateral agreements.
This is a benefit for manufacturers; they no longer need
to seek extra government authorizations that did not add
any value.
Previously issued authorizations will no longer need
to receive the corresponding approval from the importing

authority - so a U.S. FAA TSOA holder who has not
previously investigated the European or Canadian market can
now begin to do so under the terms of the bilaterals (see below
for implementation date data).
It is also valuable for governments, because they no longer
need to commit resources to unnecessary authorizations. For
repair stations and parts distributors, it will be important to
train receiving inspectors to recognize the markings that are
acceptable under the bilateral agreements.
This may not affect relationships immediately - existing
articles already have letters of design approval. But as new
articles are brought to market, U.S. parties importing CANTSOA and ETSOA units will start to notice that they no longer
carry indicia of FAA TSO design approval, because that additional approval is no longer necessary.
Where major changes are applied to TSOA, ETSOA or
CAN-TSOA articles, the home nation will approve the changes under its own policies, and then the unit can be reciprocally
accepted by the other authorities under the appropriate bilateral agreement. This holds true for units that were originally
approved under letters of design approval.
The authorities have agreed to accept, without further validation, data related to non-TSO functions that are integrated
into an article and that were accepted in accordance with the
procedures of the exporting authority.
Also, note that this applies only where there are correlative
TSOs between the authorities (both authorities have issued
the same TSO documents). If one authority has a TSO but
the other does not, then an application for design approval
would be made from the importing authority (under the FAA's
general authority to approve under section 21.8 of the FAA
regulations, for example).
The agreements exist between the U.S. and Canada, and the
U.S. and EU.
When does this change occur?
The TSO mutual acceptance agreement between the U.S.
and Canada became effective with the publication of the
implementation procedures on Sept. 15, 2015 (amendment 1
to revision 1).
The TSO mutual acceptance agreement between the U.S.
and EU has been negotiated and published, but is not yet
effective. The details are found in revision 5 of the FAAEASA Technical Implementation Procedures, which was
signed on Sept. 15, 2015. However, these procedures will not
be implemented until the decision is ratified by the European
Commission.
The EU and Canada have had reciprocal acceptance of
ETSOA/CAN-TSOA articles since at least 2011, with a significant expansion in 2013. q
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News February 2016