In short, the doctrine of comparative advantage has informed, if not quite dominated, the GATT since its creation in the early post-war years, and has sustained that fragile enterprise for half a century, climaxed by establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994.1 But the doctrine of comparative advantage is not self-evident, and doubts about its validity, as well as about its political sustainability, have also informed the GATT, as well as the behaviour of its member states.