ABSTRACT
The Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation (NGTF) was established by the Trade Negotiations Committee according to the Modalities for Negotiations on Trade Facilitation. The Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) had been the dwelling of trade facilitation for the purpose of discussion but not negotiation until the NGTF took over. The work done by the CTG solidly paved the way for building up the imminent NGTF. On trade facilitation, the principles of single undertaking, inclusiveness, transparency and member-driven, particularly, steered the negotiation process and enabled the groupings to compromise on their well-entrenched stances and to reach the hard-won consensus. Transparency is entirely in tune with inclusiveness. The World Trade Organization (WTO), which claims itself a transparency-pursuing system, affirmed in the Doha Ministerial Declaration that 'the negotiations shall be conducted in a transparent manner among participants'. Member-driven, together with inclusiveness and transparency, builds up the democracy that the WTO takes on in establishing new rules for the world trading system.
