The international professional engineers agreement recognises the substantial equivalency of standards establishing the competency of professional engineers for independent practice. Previously known as the Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF), the standard of competence applied is the same as for the APEC Engineer Agreement. Most of the APEC Agreement members are also members of the IPEA Agreement, but the latter is truly global so that countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa have become members of IPEA even though they cannot join the APEC Agreement.