Orrin Hatch: “I have heard the arguments of the distinguished Senator from Arkansas over and over. I know he is sincere. I know he…”

“I have heard the arguments of the distinguished Senator from Arkansas over and over. I know he is sincere. I know he means well. But his arguments fixate on one or two companies. If you were to look at this in the context of all of the companies, the thousands of companies, that benefited from the GATT Treaty, it reduces his arguments to nothing. If you look at the companies from Arkansas that benefited from the GATT Treaty, you have to ask why they should receive a benefit that others did not? It is because they had to draw the line somewhere. The simple truth is that there were some who won and some who did not. The thrust of my colleague's argument is that consumers are spending exorbitant amounts of money for Zantac because one company, Glaxo, has had its patent expanded under the GATT Treaty. It does not matter if Glaxo or any other company benefited under this treaty. The important thing is that treaty be preserved. It took decades to bring this treaty about. It is a treaty with important intellectual property provisions, provisions important for the whole world. We have taken decades to get other nations to sign on to this treaty, many of which did not want to. Some of them would like nothing better than to undermine this treaty.”