It began as a classic David-and-Goliath story, with a small and relatively poor country - Thailand - butting heads against wealthy multinational tobacco companies and the powerful US trade office that championed their cause. By the time it was over - after a 20-month battle before a GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, now the World Trade Organization) panel and in the court of global public opinion -— Goliath's image had been badly battered, anti-tobacco forces in Thailand and internationally had been re-energized, and Thailand had won the right to impose some of the strictest tobacco controls in the world.