WTO 위생검역협정상 위험평가 및 보호수준의 적정성

Risk Assessment and Appropriate Level of Protection under the WTO SPS Agreement

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures(SPS Agreement), the most significant result of the global effort to reduce trade distortions, created a new framework of rules to ensure that the protection of health is done in a manner minimizing restrictions to trade: It contains rules, principles and benchmarks for WTO Members to ensure and to justify sanitary and phytosanitary measures not constituting disguised restrictions on international trade. The SPS Agreement relies heavily on scientific assessment and expert organizations' standards or guidelines to avoid and resolve trade disputes, which raises a number of unsettled problems including the science and policy issues. The Agreement should be implemented and evaluated with an eye toward the potential use of scientific method and expert bodies' standards in treating all measures designed to protect human health, safety, and the environment. This article examines the effectiveness of the Agreement, through the interpretation and examination of the agreement and it's implementation. The discussion on the interpretation and implementation is made through the review of the three major WTO dispute cases concerning SPS measures.