The UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Civil Aviation Administration of China have today signed a Working Arrangement on the reciprocal acceptance of Production and Airworthiness Approval.
The Working Arrangement allows for the export of new and used aircraft, products, parts and appliances between the UK and China, retaining the arrangements in place when the UK was a member of the European Union (EU).
The Working Arrangement is one of many negotiated in recent months with several countries, including Brazil, Singapore, and Canada, following the UK's departure from the EU and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) system. Further agreements will be announced in the coming weeks.
Bilateral agreements and arrangements allow the airworthiness certification of civil aeronautical products to be shared between two countries.
A Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or Working Arrangement (WA) and their associated implementing procedures provide for technical cooperation between national civil aviation authorities. They help reduce duplication of activity and aim for mutual acceptance of certificates.
In addition to airworthiness certification, BASAs, MoUs and WAs provide for bilateral cooperation across other areas of aviation, including maintenance, flight operations, and environmental certification.
For aircraft certification and maintenance, additional implementation procedures will cover specific issues such as design approval, production acceptance, export airworthiness approval, post-design approval activities, technical cooperation and maintenance.
Source : UK-CAA.
