UL, the most authoritative and oldest American typical nonprofit private organization in certification field of safety of manufactured goods, was established in 1894 under the state law of Delaware. Its head office is in Northbrook, Illinois and it has 5 laboratories including Melville lab in New York, RFT(Research Triangle Park) in North Carolina, Santa Clara lab in California and Camas in Washington and

branches in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. Acquisition of UL is optional, but UL standards is trustworthy in the U.S. and actually represents safety of electric appliance, so most producers, consumers and importers in the U.S. require this UL mark.

FCC(Federal Communications Commission) is an independent US government agency, controls unnecessary electromagnetic wave from electric and electronic appliances under the Communication Act. Main functions of FCC are to approve all sorts of radio system and to regulate unnecessary electromagnetic wave. Sampling and Measurement Branch tests various products collected from markets for post

management of all imported goods in the U.S. Every year post management is likely to be reinforced, and in case of disqualification, approval will be cancelled, marketing will be prohibited, recall and penalty will be required.

CE marking is provided to goods in EU(European Union) for safety of human body, health, environment and consumer protection. 17 items classified by the Global Approach established in December 1990 should attach CE mark, and goods without CE marking cannot be distributed nor sold in EU. Certification of CE marking must follow the Directive in charge of each item group and goods should be according to

EN standards fundamentally. For the first time, CE marking was called "CE mark", "EC" in UK and "EG mark" in Germany, but "EC Directive 93/465/EEC" unified the term as "CE marking" in July 1993. More than 40% of Korean goods exported to EU need CE marking. There are some differences in CE marking by item, but in case that certification of authorized institutions is needed, about 3 months and high cost from millions to tens of millions of won are required, so market expansion of Korean export items are affected by CE marking.

MIC established by the Ministry of Information and Communication follows Radio Waves Act 57 to sharpen the international competitiveness of domestic goods and protect domestic radio waves environment by positively coping with protective trade of developed countries and preventing industrial disasters by erroneous operation and trouble in communication by unnecessary radio waves generated

from electric and electronic appliances rapidly increased and industrial disasters.

IK is a certification system to assure safety of goods and guarantee it continuously through previous test and inspection in order to regulate tolerance of electromagnetic waves generated from goods and external electromagnetic waves and prevent consumer's damage or loss from risks of electric appliances (electric shock, energy risk, fire, mechanical danger, thermal danger, radial danger, chemical danger, etc.).

KETI(Korea Electric Testing Institute) carefully selects the companies producing high quality goods and confers them Q mark for improvement in quality of electric and electronic goods and consumer protection.

China has integrated its two compulsory inspection systems, one to check contents of products for import and export and the other for quality control, into a single procedure as part of its commitment for entry into the World Trade Organization.

The GQ mark is applicable to small and medium sized enterprises. It is used to promote and encourage the purchase of their products. Type of goods Granted the GQ Mark Under the small and medium Enterprises Promotion and Encouragement of Purchase of their Products Act, the Small and Medium Business Administration must

publish the names of machinery and petrochemical products having received the GQ Mark.