미국산쇠고기 수입위생조건 합의서와 가축 전염병예방법에 관한 국제통상법적 고찰

This article concerns major issues of the Korea-U.S. beef agreements on import health requirements for U.S. Beef and Beef Products, which refers to a series of agreement and exchanged letters between April 2008 and June 2008. The issues are to be divided into two dimensions: international and domestic arena. At international law level, the author has firstly classified the legal status of the beef agreements as treaty provided in the article 2(1)a of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Secondly, the author reviews the relationship between the beef agreements and WTO/SPS, summarizing the beef agreements have the subordinate status to the WTO/SPS. Thus according to the second exchanged letter, if a dispute is broken out, the SPS agreement will prevail the article 5 of the beef agreement which sets a condition in case of beef import suspension by Korean Government. Thirdly, the author describes the jurisprudence of SPS related to the issues in case of the import suspension such as: mutual relationship between GATT and SPS, burden of proof, legal status of OIE's recommendation, precautionary principle. In conclusion, at domestic law level, the author warns the imminent conflicts between the beef Notice 2008-15 of the relevant Minister, materializing the beef agreement, and its superior Act on the Prevention of Contagious Animal Diseases should be avoided, advancing several policy-oriented proposals.