New rules for selling Used Serviceable Material into China have been approved that “vastly expand” the scope of what will be categorised as USM.
Jason Dickstein, president of Washington Aviation Group and General Council of the ASA [Aviation Suppliers Association] told this week’s PAM APAC conference the directive will be effective as of December 31.
Formally announced on Friday, the Chinese have released databases in English and in Chinese. Airlines that have been tracking the development have already been adding serialised parts into the system.
Dickstein told the event in Singapore that the directive now incudes new supplier materials and new factory materials as USM. “That’s a much broader definition of USM than we are used to,” he said.
“Airlines have a lot of questions about this. Some do need to be resolved and we are going to work together to find solutions that the government is happy with.”
Dickstein said the move by the Chinese government was an example of how airline policies need to be flexible enough to cope with the unpredictability of changes in government policy.
He said the ultimate goal of the sector is to be able to track factors that are outside of its control. He described government action as one of the “most insidious” factors that the aviation faces having to prepare for.
“Just because you cannot control it, does not mean you can’t track it and understand it,” said Dickstein. “The reality is you can track it and you can influence it and you can try to understand the government actions and how they apply to us as we build our own compliance programmes.”
He added: “Supply chains need to have sources of information as well as sound quality assurance systems to make sure that they are protecting you while being flexible enough to make sure that they can continue to comply with regulatory systems as they change.”
