NOM-001 SCFI 2018 Update

Today, Friday, August 14, NOM-001-SCFI-2018 officially went into effect and was published by the Mexican Authority, the Economy Ministry. The final document has not changed from the draft version, except that the Equivalency Agreement (EA) for testing in North American is on hold and currently not being accepted.

With the publishing of the standard, B2B products that were formerly allowed a waiver at point of entry must now meet the full NOM-001 testing requirements. Affected products include small appliances, wire and cable, electronics, energy and power technology, WIFI and Bluetooth.

Not included in the publication of the standard is the Equivalency Agreement to grant a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) to UL 60950-1, UL 60065 or UL 62368-1. The DGN  hosted an urgent call on August 12th with all international Certification Bodies (UL, CSA, SGS, Nemko, Intertek, TUV Rh, TUV SUD) to notify us that the draft Equivalency Agreement (EA) for NOM-001-SCFI-2018 will NOT BE PUBLISHED into law and will remain ON-HOLD until a reciprocity clause is accepted between the USA, Canada and Mexico governments in compliance with Quality Infra-Structure Law dated July 1, 2020.

However, products with current CoC’s will be able to continue importing while they are testing for NOM-001, if they have a signed Application Form (AF) completed and sent by UL to the Mexican Authority by Midnight in Mexico August 15th. To start that process, please contact your local UL GMA team for assistance. You will need have your product ratings and CoC form number. Once the Mexican Authority sends back confirmation of the application you will be able to continue importing into Mexico while you complete the NOM-001 testing.

Another potential change to NOM-001 market access in the future is adding an MRA option for access. UL Mexico is an accredited certification office and can issue NOM-001-SCFI-2018 based on a test report from an accredited or MRA laboratory.  UL is pending the DGN signature for the MRA and once signed, UL can test outside of Mexico.

To learn more about the NOM-001 regulation and how UL can help you meet compliance and your global market access needs, view this webinar and this frequently asked questions document or contact us.

Upcoming changes for Mexico access

Other regulatory changes for selling products into Mexico are expected later this year and  into 2021. We will keep you updated on the details of those changes as they are made public by the DGN. Below are updates to the Mexico NOM safety for information technology equipment and Mexico IFT for new SAR requirements.

NOM-019 Updates:

Currently there is still no date to publish NOM-019, which impacts information technology equipment.

As of December 20, 2020, UL will no longer be issuing new UL Listings and Certificate of Compliances (CoCs) to UL 60950-1 (NWGQ / 2). After this date, only UL 62368-1 UL Listing (AZOT / 2) and CoCs will be issued for new product submittals.

The current Mexico Equivalency Agreement (EA) for NOM-019-SCFI-1998 does not recognize or accept UL 62368-1 CoCs.  Therefore, until the current EA has been updated to accept UL 62368-1 or a new NOM-019 standard has been published with a corresponding new EA, ITE products that qualify for the current EA DGN Notification may be impacted.  Details are as follows:

1. For products that have a valid UL 60950-1 CoC (NWGQ /2 certification): No change, DGN Notification Can be Processed
2. For products that only have a valid UL 62368-1 CoC: (AZOT /2 certification): A complementary UL Listing to UL 60950-1 CoC (NWGQ  / 2 certification) will be issued to support the Mexico EA program. (NOTE: You must have the UL 60950-1 CoC (NWGQ /2 certification) before UL can process the registration to DGN.  This complementary listing is short term to support the Mexico EA only.  This is not an option for any other program at this time.
3. For products requesting a new UL evaluation concurrently with the DGN registration:

1. Before December 20, 2020: We can issue a Listing to UL 60950 (NWGQ / 2) only Listing to both UL 60950 (NWGQ / 2) and UL 62368-1 (AZOT / 2)
2. After December 20, 2020: We will issue a UL Listing to UL 62368-1 (AZOT / 2) only, with a complementary listing to UL 60950-1 (NWGQ / 2 certification) to support the DGN registration only.

Please note there is no established timeline to update the existing EA due to several factors, including Covid-19 and the timeline to publish/implement NOM-019-SCFI-2016 which will result in new EA. 

IFT Updates:

In February 2021, NOM IFT-007-2019 and IFT-012-2019 for specific absorption rate testing will go into effect. These standards are based on IEC 62209-1:2016 Ed.2 and IEC 62209-2:2010 Ed. 1. The impact is that products, equipment, devices or devices intended for telecommunications that may be connected to a telecommunications network and/or make use of the radio spectrum in the interval frequency 30 MHz to 6 GHz must be IFT homologated when it is:

• used near the head, particularly near the ear and
• used at a distance less than or equal to 200 mm from the human body.