개방화된 국제통상 환경 속에서의 우리 식품안전정책의 방향 ― 한ㆍ미 쇠고기협상 이슈를 중심으로 ―

The food safety policy of Korea must be designed and implemented to maintain a balance between the goals of trade liberalization and protection of food safety. This balance is stated in WTO Agreements: WTO members have the right to set an appropriate level of protection from food risks, and at the same time, they must fulfill the obligation to minimize any unnecessary restrictive effect on international trade. In order to implement best food safety policies in a highly political environment, any health risks and necessity of regulation must be proven and shown based on the principle of scientific evidence. In the end, international society demands that all states should implement their food safety policies on this basis. If an uncertainty problem in health risk arises that cannot be solved by a current level of scientific development, Korea needs to take precautionary measures on a temporary basis, and subsequently, it must return to a policy based on a new scientific development upon making additional scientific discovery. In this process, the temporary safeguard mechanism recognized by WTO SPS Agreement must be fully relied upon, and its limitation must be also understood. These procedural steps must be taken with active communication with the general public so as to minimize unnecessary political struggles that may be caused by misinformation and consumer anxiety. All these processes may function well in an environment of advanced level of institutionalization and democracy. After going through the Korea-US beef struggles, Korea needs to establish a high-level food safety management system, which can also stabilize the long-term trading system with the world on an overall balance of interest between domestic producers and consumers.