Inter-American Telecommunications Committee of the Organization of American States Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) for Conformity Assessment of Telecommunications Equipment

Background

The CITEL MRA was signed by OAS in 1999.  The MRA is a government-to-government agreement which is a framework agreement, that is voluntary, that goes into effect when two or more parties agree to implement. It provides for the mutual recognition of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) and mutual acceptance of the results of testing and equipment certification procedures undertaken by those bodies in assessing conformity of equipment to the importing country’s Technical Regulations.
In order to implement the U.S. requires an exchange of letters between participating governments to define the details of the agreement.

Scope

The scope of the MRA includes all equipment subject to telecommunications regulations including wire and wireless equipment, network terminal attachments, terrestrial and satellite equipment.  For such equipment the CITEL MRA covers electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), radio and telephone terminal equipment requirements.

General Information about MRA

The CITEL MRA is a multi-lateral, single sector agreement regarding the conformity assessment of telecommunications equipment.  There are 34 countries which are members of CITEL.
The MRA has two phases:

• Phase I is for the mutual acceptance of test data.
• Phase II is for the acceptance of equipment approvals.

The CITEL MRA is very similar in format to the APEC Tel MRA.
CITEL meets twice a year and as part of these meetings common implementation and operational issues are discussed.

Participating Countries

The U.S. participates within the CITEL MRA in Phase I with*:

• Canada – Information exchanged January 2002, Operational February 2003

The U.S. participates within the CITEL MRA in Phase II with*:

• Canada – Information exchanged January 2003, Operational January 2004

*To view the exchange letters with each country click on the economy name above.

Links/Supporting Information

The text of the CITEL MRA may be viewed on the NIST web site at:  http://gsi.nist.gov/global/docs/mra/citel-mra-annex.pdf
In the U.S., the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a designating authority.  The NIST CITEL MRA web site may be accessed at: http://gsi.nist.gov/global/index.cfm/L1-4/L2-16/L3-91