November 10, 2003

To address the expressed needs of industry, UL and CSA are jointly announcing an agreement to establish a collaborative process leading to acceptance of specified components, certified by the other organization, used in Low Voltage Distribution and Control Equipment submitted to UL or CSA for certification. For the purpose of this agreement, a component is any device that is a building block of an electrical product or other electrical component.

The key elements underpinning this agreement are the consistency of evaluation and on-going follow-up, and equal treatment of components by UL and CSA. To that end, each organization will treat components certified by the other organization the same way as it treats components it had certified itself. The following principles will be applied to ensure the consistency of on-going component follow-up:

• No Reduction in Follow-Up Levels - Maintaining the highest level of existing follow-up of the two organizations.
• Transparency - The follow-up requirements need to be transparent to customers (i.e., the customers need to see all of the details)
• Equivalency - Follow- up equivalency must be achieved in all aspects.
• Complementary - Must provide procedural efficiency of follow-up and value to the customer.
• Verifiable - Each organization must be able to verify the other organization's procedures and practices through an efficient auditing/validation process.

The intended scope of this agreement covers the component categories specified in Annex A, when these components are used in the end products specified in Annex B. The scope of this agreement also covers the use of components specified in Annex A in other Annex A components. It is anticipated that implementation of this agreement will be in phases related to application of the above principles, and this may ultimately modify the effective scope of this agreement. Successive implementation phases of this agreement will be announced by joint UL and CSA communications.

UL and CSA continue to look for progressive ways to assist manufacturers with specific North American certification needs to supplement existing services offered by both organizations. The effectiveness of this agreement will be re-assessed after 18 months to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of customers and the two organizations.