수산물 위생관리제도에 관한 연구

Abstract

It has been 16 years since the liberalization of marine product imports in 1997. Since then, the domestic marine product market has encountered drastic changes due to an increase of marine products import. The domestic fisheries industry including fish farming industry suffered from difficulties in management because of imported marine products traded in market in lower prices. Also, while free trade became the rule of international trade, the Korean government strived to create appropriate policies and to establish the market order for increasing competitiveness of domestic fisheries industry. It is important to evaluate the marine products management system of Korea which has been a measure to respond to changes, while searching for solutions to improve the system. Based upon this background, this research aims to figure out solutions to improve the marine products import management system of Korea in line with the international norm. For contributing to establish the market order, this research deals with related systems of developed countries and some changes in the international norm. As improvement measures, it suggests to reinforce international quarantine for edible marine products, to develop distinction technology for place of origin and to activate the national marine products sanitation agreement system, while recommending legal reform solutions which would facilitate mentioned improvement methods. The goals of public policy regarding marine products import are to be focused on marine resource management, environment protection, eco-system protection and market order reinforcement. Pursuing these goals has a wide range of beneficiaries, since not only domestic producers but also customers would take advantages of the public policies. Several imported marine products management systems of Japan, the U.S., and EU which are dealt with in this research aim for food sanitation, food safety and customer projection. However, it has been recognized that these systems were used to protect domestic producers indirectly. The safety and sanitation management of marine products is dealt with not only by Sanitary and Phtosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement but also by the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Similar issues are also discussed over by WTO, FAO and OECD. Especially, WTO and FAO founded Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) in 1962 which is in charge of international marine products quarantine. The international organizations mentioned above establish international standards on the premise that quarantine measures should not become a trade barrier in international food trade. Also, individual countries tend to reinforce the sanitation criteria of imported marine products. They have adopted new sanitation management systems for marine products safety. For example, developed countries such as the U.S. and Japan conducted fishery area management to imported marine products from abroad. In addition, they required exporters to satisfy their own sanitation criteria such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System (HACCP) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). The purpose of the WTO agreement on SPS is to prevent trade distortion, by changing quarantine measures into a consistent international norm, since the measures have been adopted by individual countries making an arbitrary decision for protesting against to free trade. The SPS agreement consists of the preamble, 14 articles in the body and 3 appendices. 14 articles and 46 clauses in the body contain consistency with international norms, the principle of equivalence, the principle of transparency, risk estimation and maintenance of the appropriate protection level. 3 appendices include definitions, sanitation management & supervision, the transparency of sanitation control and approval procedures. Codex has been considered as the international standard of food safety ever since the conference for founding Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) in 1962 which WTO and WHO jointly organized. Codex serves 4 different functions. First, Codex establishes international standards of traded food. Second, it defines the standard of food additives usage such as usage object and usage dose. Third, it sets criteria of pollutant control regarding remain agricultural pesticides, veterinary medicines, heavy metal and other pollutants. Lastly, it offers a task performance function for food safety and trade. Codex provides 28 different standards concerning marine products for the purpose of enhancing their food safety. The standards reflect characteristics of each marine product and provide detailed criteria for sanitation management. Individual countries have implemented sanitation management policies for marine products to increase competitiveness of exported marine products and to provide their own citizens with high quality marine products as the global marine products market is getting liberalized. To the contrary, the sanitation management system of marine products from the Korean government distributes authority across multiple bodies. Also, it is not systematical enough to connect production to consumption, which makes it vulnerable to changes. Currently, marine products import has been increasing due to a gradual increase of marine products demand and a decrease of domestic supply. Therefore, it is important to review and reform existing facilities and systems for marine products sanitation management, to prepare for times imported marine products account for vast amount of domestic supply. Now is the time that issues concerning safety and sanitation management of marine product take priority in marine administration. Although the traceability system for marine products has been operated, only the limited number of consumers is utilizing it due to the lack of efficient promotion. There are even a lot more customers who are not aware of the system than those who are. The financial aid from the government is not enough to set up devices across the country and to promote the system in media. In addition, the efficiency of the system seems to be low given that the government only tried to increase the number of registered firms in the system, rather than focusing on 'food safety', the original purpose. Individual efforts of the government organizations, business and customers in improving the current system have their own limitation as food sanitation management issues are in a wide range of fields. Therefore, to efficiently enhance marine products safety, the central government has to provide sanitation management solutions which are systematical and consistent in a long term.