For those who prefer to stop guessing and would like to get some
information from the horse's mouthes:
There will be two consecutive workshops, to be
held in Washington, D.C. on April 27-29, 1999.
On Tuesday, April 27, representatives of the European Commission,
and other European experts, will brief interested parties from
both the United States and Canada on responsibilities under relevant
European directives (98/13/EC and 89/336/EEC) and the respective
Canadian and US MRAs with the EU. A draft agenda for this all-day
workshop is enclosed. Attendees are advised to bring copies of the
relevant EU directives and the EU MRA with them to the workshop.
On Wednesday, April 28, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) invites interested parties, including Canadians,
to attend a workshop to develop the following two sets of criteria,
for implementation purposes:
(1) criteria for a sub-program under the National Voluntary
Conformity Assessment Systems Evaluation (NVCASE) Program to satisfy
product testing, certification and quality systems requirements of
the telecommunications equipment and EMC annexes of the US/EC MRA;
(2) criteria for the qualification and operation of telecommunications
certification bodies (TCBs) under the FCC Report and Order 98-338 of
17 December 1998.
The Tuesday and Wednesday workshops will be held from
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. in the Department of Commerce Auditorium, at
14th Street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.
(Note: there also is a workshop on Thursday, doing much the same thing
for the Canada - Switzerland MRA, in the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
Since the US has no MRA with Switzerland (yet) this may be of interest
only to Canadians).
You must pre-register to attend any of the workshops by providing the
full names and affiliations of planned participants from your
organization by April 16, so that appropriate arrangements can be
made.
Note: I don't know where US attendees must register.
Check with DoC or NIST.
EU Workshop for North American CABs
A.M. Overview of Practical Implementation of the MRA Transition
Period (EMC and telecom/radio):
- Manufacturer Responsibilities
- Role of CABs
- Competent Bodies' Role (EMC)
- Notified Bodies' Role - both EMC and TTE
- Annexes I - IV of the TTE Directive (98/13/EC)
- Exchange of Test Reports, Etc. during the Transition Period
- Confidence Building
P.M. Overview of the Proposed R&TTE Directive:
- Description of the provisions of the directive
- Essential requirements
- Role of voluntary standards; shift from CTRs to TBRs or other ETSI
standards, etc.
- Availability of network technical information
- Role of notified bodies
- Need for quality systems
The week following, ICC has arranged for a seminar and workhops that
will allow for further elaboration, including full discussion on the
new R&TTE Directive that will replace the TTE Directive covered under
the MRAs. This will provide you with valuable insights into where the
Conformity Assessment of information and communications technology
(ICT) equipment approvals is moving:
The Third Annual Approvals Seminar
Dallas, Texas
May 3 & 4, 1999 at the Intercontinental Hotel.
This year's program looks as if it will be the most significant
event in North America this year, on world-wide approvals and
compliance issues.
Mark Bogers of the European Commission, who has the primary
responsibility for expediting the R&TTE Directive will talk about
how this will revolutionize the principles of equipment approval
in Europe, and he expects, on a global scale. Mark will speak in
the morning and conduct a workshop in the afternoon.
Manfred Mall of Siemens, the chair of an EC Implementation ad-hoc
on the R&TTE Directive (and an active member of TIA TR41 during his
years of service in Boca Raton) will speak about the need for further
significant simplification on a global scale, in the longer term.
He will elaborate on an ECTEL/Eurobit Green Paper on "Global Product
Approval for the Future" a proposal to the WTO. Manfred will talk
in the morning as well and conduct a parallel workshop in the
afternoon.
The second day of the seminar will be devoted to extensive
treatment of approvals issues in South America, North America,
Central Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, China, Japan
and Brazil.
Approval manuals for the Africas, Americas, Asia-Pacific,
Central & East Europe, Europe and the Gulf States will be
on display (and sale, I assume).
For more info look up http://www.icc-uk.com/
To register, contact Pat Cannon at <[email protected]>
Hope to see you'all there,
Vic Boersma
