Regulation

FAA Signs New Safety Agreement With China

China Airlines Boeing 777. Photo courtesy of Boeing

FAA has signed a new safety agreement with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Under the new U.S.-China Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), the civil aviation regulatory bodies of both countries will recognize each other’s regulatory systems with respect to the airworthiness of aviation products and articles.

According to an announcement from the FAA, the two countries have established a new “Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness (IPA) document,” which allows each authority to leverage approvals completed by the other with respect to design, production and airworthiness as well as continued airworthiness. By establishing the new IPA document, the U.S. and China finally fulfilled the commitment they made in 2005 with the original formation of BASA.

The agreement uses the compatibilities of the two authorities’ certification systems and fulfills the commitment that the U.S. and China made in 2005 with the establishment of an agreement. Both the FAA and CAAC can use the IPA to submit applications for validation for all categories of aviation products, and address globalization challenges such as “complex business models separating design and production,” the FAA said.

The agreement is the latest international certification partnership effort undertaken by the FAA to reduce certification duplication, following a renewed agreement with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) earlier in October.

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