A Legal Analysis of the Prospective Korea-China Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products

Abstract

The Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products is concluded on the basis of the concept of equivalence and the principle of mutual recognition. Nowadays, Equivalence Agreements are evident in the sector of organic products. For example, the US-EU (2012), the Korea-US (2014), and the Korea-EU (2015) Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products have been concluded and these agreements are reviewed in this thesis. In case of Korea, Korea mainly concluded the Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products with its FTA partner countries such as the US and EU. As China is a neighboring country of Korea and also is the FTA partner country of Korea, there exist possibilities of negotiating on the conclusion of the Korea-China Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products. Thus, the Korea and China organic regulations are analyzed from the legal perspectives. Mainly, the legal analysis centers on the core concept of organic regulations, such as organic labeling, conversion period, GMOs, accreditation, certification, etc. The legal differences are found by the legal analysis, and then compare those legal differences between the two countries with Codex Guidelines in order to resolve issues for the conclusion of the prospective Korea-China Equivalence Agreement on Organic Products.