Z:gnu-www-ja-stallman-mec-india--6bd4e9-So the South-African governmen/en

So the South-African government was going to issue compulsory licenses which, even under GATT, it's allowed to do. But the US government threatened economic sanctions. Vice-President Gore was directly involved with this. And then, about a year before the presidential election, he realized that this was going to look bad, so he dropped out of the effort.