ABSTRACT
I have often (only partly in jest) described the word transparency as the most opaque in the trade policy lexicon. This is because while it is considered one of the basic rules governing the postwar trading system as embodied in the GATT and now the WTO, its genesis is obscure, its definition – captured in Article X of the 1947 GATT (see Appendix) – imprecise, and the extent and nature of its implementation pretty well unknown.
