Washington Accord

• The Washington Accord is an international accreditation agreement for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory countries. Established in 1989, the signatories as of 2014 are Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States

• The agreement recognizes that there is substantial equivalence of programs accredited by those signatories. Graduates of accredited programs in any of the signatory countries are recognized by the other signatory countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. Recognition of accredited programs is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status

• The Washington Accord covers undergraduate engineering degrees under Outcome-based education approach. Engineering technology and postgraduate programs are not covered by the accord, although some engineering technology programs are covered under the Sydney Accord and the Dublin Accord. Only qualifications awarded after the signatory country or region became part of the Washington Accord are recognized. The accord is not directly responsible for the licensing of Professional Engineers and the registration Chartered Engineers, but it does cover the academic requirements that are part of the licensing processes in signatory countries.

• The following are the signatory accreditation bodies of the Washington Accord, their respective countries and territories, and years of admission:[1]

• Australia - (Engineers Australia, 1989) • Canada - (Engineers Canada, 1989) • Taiwan - (Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan, 2007) • Hong Kong - (The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, 1995) • India - (National Board of Accreditation, 2014)[2] • Ireland - (Engineers Ireland, 1989) • Japan - (Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education, 2005) • Korea - (Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea, 2007) • Malaysia - (Board of Engineers Malaysia, 2009) • New Zealand - (Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, 1989) • Russia - (Russian Association for Engineering Education, 2012) • Singapore - (Institution of Engineers Singapore, 2006) • South Africa - (Engineering Council of South Africa, 1999) • Sri Lanka - (Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 2014) • Turkey - (MÜDEK, 2011) • United Kingdom - (Engineering Council UK, 1989) • United States - (ABET, 1989)

• The following countries have provisional signatory status and may become member signatories in the future:

• Bangladesh - (Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education)

• Germany - (German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics)

• Pakistan - (Pakistan Engineering Council) • Philippines - (Philippine Technological Council) • Peru - (ICACIT) • India becomes the permanent signatory to Washington

Accord on June 13, 2014 in meeting held at International Energy Alliance(IEA), New Zealand.

Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA)

• A mutual recognition agreement (MRA) is an international agreement by which two or more countries agree to recognize one another's conformity assessments. A mutual recognition arrangement is an international arrangement based on such an agreement.

• MRAs have become increasingly common since the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1995. They have been forged within and among various trade blocs, including APEC and the European Union.

• MRAs are most commonly applied to goods, such as various quality control MRAs. However, the term is sometimes applied to agreements on the recognition of professional qualifications as well.

Free Trade Agreements (FTA)

• A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers—import quotas and tariffs— and to increase trade of goods and services with each other.[1] If people are also free to move between the countries, in addition to FTA, it would also be considered an open border. It can be considered the second stage of economic integration.

Free Trade Agreements (FTA)

• Free Trade Agreements • Benefits of Trade Agreements • • NAFTA 20 Years Later Overview • Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proved to be one of the best ways to

open up foreign markets to U.S. exporters. Trade Agreements reduce barriers to U.S. exports, and protect U.S. interests and enhance the rule of law in the FTA partner country. The reduction of trade barriers and the creation of a more stable and transparent trading and investment environment make it easier and cheaper for U.S. companies to export their products and services to trading partner markets. In 2014, 47 percent of U.S. goods exports went to FTA partner countries. U.S. merchandise exports to the 20 FTA partners with agreements in force totaled $765 billion, up 4 percent from 2013. The United States also enjoyed a trade surplus in manufactured goods with our FTA partners totaling $55 billion in 2014.

• Free Trade Agreement 07 Jan 2015 08:17 AM • Malaysia's FTA Involvement • International trade is an important contributor to Malaysia 's economic

growth and development. Malaysia 's trade policy is to pursue efforts towards creating a more liberalizing and fair global trading environment. While Malaysia continues to accord high priority to the rule-based multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Malaysia is also pursuing regional and bilateral trading arrangements to complement the multilateral approach to trade liberalisation.

• Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are generally aimed at providing the means to achieve quicker and higher levels of liberalisation that would create effective market access between the participants of the FTA. Traditionally confined to trade in goods, with the establishment of the WTO, trade in services has been included in many FTAs.

• Today, FTAs currently pursued with selected countries are not confined to liberalisation and market opening measures alone. They are comprehensive and include investment, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights (IPR) as well as economic cooperation in areas such as:

• competition policy; • standards and conformity assessment; • information and communication technology; • science and technology; • education and training; • research and development; • financial cooperation; • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development; and • paperless trading.

• Malaysia has established FTAs with the following countries: • Japan; • Pakistan; • New Zealand; • India; • Chile; and • Australia. • At the regional level, Malaysia and its ASEAN partners have

established the ASEAN Free Trade Area. ASEAN has also concluded FTAs with China, Japan, Korea and India, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

• With which countries does the United States have an FTA?

• As of January 1, 2015, the United States has 14 FTAs in force with 20 countries. The United States is negotiating a regional FTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The United States and the European Union launched negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in June 2013.

Intellectual Property (IP)

• Intellectual property (IP) is a legal term that refers to creations of the mind. Examples of intellectual property include music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Under intellectual property laws, owners of intellectual property are granted certain exclusive rights. Some common types of intellectual property rights (IPR) are copyright, patents, and industrial design rights; and the rights that protect trademarks, trade dress, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Intellectual property rights are themselves a form of property, called intangible property.

• Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, trade dress, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. There are also more specialized varieties of sui generis exclusive rights, such as circuit design rights (called mask work rights in U.S. law, protected under the Integrated Circuit Topography Act in Canadian law, and in European Union law by Directive 87/54/EEC of 16 December 1986 on the legal protection of topographies of semiconductor products), plant breeders' rights, plant variety rights, industrial design rights, supplementary protection certificates for pharmaceutical products and database rights

Patent

• A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process

Copyright

• A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed

Industrial Design Right

• An industrial design right protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft.

Trademark

• A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders

Trade Secret

• A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers