WTO 일본의 사과수입제한조치 사건 고찰

The concern of the human life and health matters has increased dramatically over the past few years, so that the content of the SPS Agreement has become one of the major issues in the international society. The SPS Agreement contains the right to take measures for sanitary and phytosanitary matters if the measure satisfies certain requirements of the Agreement. The Agreement is a well-known one in Korean society because of Korea and United States negotiations of beef importation issue. At the same time, the precautionary principle is still a matter of debate aa far as food security is concerned. After EC-Hormones case, Japan-Apples case is a key case on the SPS Agreement of the WTO. The Panel and Appellate Body concluded that Japan's measures at issue were inconsistent with Articles 2.2, 5.7 and 5.1 of the SPS Agreement. The Panel found that the measures in question was maintained ‘without sufficient scientific evidence', contrary to the Art. 2.2 of the SPS Agreement. In addition, that measure was not imposed in respect of a situation ‘where relevant scientific evidence is insufficient, so that the measure was not justified under the Art.5.7 of the SPS Agreement. With regard to Art.5.1, the Panel held that the Japan's 1999 PRA did not satisfy the definition of ‘risk assessment' under paragraph 4, Annex A of the SPS Agreement. The Appellate Body upheld the Panel's findings. However, the possibility to apply precautionary principle still remains in this kind of cases. Judging from Korea's circumstance, this case might be very useful and meaningful to examine and study the relationship between trade and protection of human life and health or environment, because Koreans are so sensitive to sanitation and safety of agricultural products.