June 22, 2026
Mr. Cassidy (for himself and Mr. Whitehouse) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to
Expressing support for the designation of June 11, 2026, as Anti-Illicit Trade Awareness Day
.
Whereas, on June 11, 1782, Alexander Hamilton set a manifest requirement for ships to list exports to address illegal smuggling and trade fraud as part of his broader efforts to protect the economy of the United States against illicit trade;
Whereas illicit trade—
(1)
consists not only of the movement of inherently illegal products, such as the trafficking of drugs, deadly fentanyl, fake medicines, firearms, illicit cigarettes, humans, illegal gold, endangered wildlife parts, cultural artifacts, counterfeit goods, and other contraband, but also the movement of products that are not inherently illicit but violate regulatory frameworks, such as diversion to unintended markets and commission of customs fraud, including tariff evasion, smuggling, misclassification, undervaluation, transshipment to disguise the true country of origin, and contravention of labeling, safety, and handling requirements;
(2)
is not currently recognized in all of its various forms, nor in its pervasiveness and severity;
(3)
is a multi-trillion-dollar global illegal economy that has numerous threat-multiplying effects, supports and expands criminalized markets, and corrodes the rule of law, good governance, and the integrity of global supply chains;
(4)
poses a significant national security threat as one of the most prominent and pernicious forms of transnational crimes facing the United States and allies of the United States given its detrimental impact on the competitiveness of the United States, legitimate markets, public trust, and the health and safety of citizens and its financing of criminal enterprises;
(5)
fuels corruption and money laundering (including trade-based money laundering) that finance greater crime convergence, insecurity, instability, and violence in all corners of the globe;
(6)
contributes to human trafficking, forced labor, modern slavery, child sextortion, and exploitation through physical intimidation, coercion, deception, or fraud;
(7)
is significantly facilitated by the proliferation of unregulated free trade zones that act as hubs of illicit trade and put the economic and physical security of the communities within which they operate at great risk;
(8)
is leveraged by maligned state actors who thwart the national interests of the United States and allies of the United States by infusing markets with dangerous illicit products such as fentanyl and use proceeds from such illicit trade to destabilize the developed world, fund violent conflicts, and enable insecure commerce streams to thrive; and
(9)
is becoming more pervasive as global connectivity and supply chains expand and Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects increase in number and scale;
Whereas recognizing illicit trade nationally is consistent with the America First Trade Policy
of the administration of President Donald J. Trump and will highlight and support the work of the cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force and Homeland Security Task Forces of the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security;
Whereas trade fraud deprives the Federal Government of billions of dollars annually, and a single transshipment investigation in 2025 uncovered more than $400,000,000 in duty evasion;
Whereas the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies has estimated that the global illegal economy may be 1 of the top 5 economies in the world, behind the gross domestic product economies of the United States, at $31,800,000,000,000, and China, at $18,700,000,000,000, with a projected economic value of between $3,000,000,000,000 and $5,000,000,000,000;
Whereas the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations have also estimated that money laundered annually from illicit economic trade is between 2 and 5 percent of global gross domestic product, or up to $6,000,000,000,000, as of 2025;
Whereas numerous international organizations recognize that the global illicit drug trade generates hundreds of billions of dollars per year;
Whereas the 2024 Global Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime noted a 25 percent increase in the number of trafficked victims in 2023 from 2022 data, and the Department of State estimates that at least 27,000,000 people were exploited for labor, services, and sexual slavery in 2024;
Whereas the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has highlighted the global trade in counterfeit and pirated products at approximately $467,000,000,000, or 2.3 percent of total global imports;
Whereas INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme have estimated the cost from an array of environmental crimes at more than $250,000,000,000 annually;
Whereas the World Health Organization estimated the size of the global illicit cigarette market to be 11.6 percent of the global cigarette market in 2024 (or 657,000,000,000 cigarettes per year and approximately $40,500,000,000 in lost revenue globally);
Whereas the Hubs of Illicit Trade Project at George Mason University has noted how criminals, counterfeiters, bad actors, illicit threat networks, and money launderers are reaping hundreds of billions of dollars in profit every year from criminality across critical hubs of illicit trade, global supply chains, and the digital world; and
Whereas public-private partnerships, public education, and general awareness of illicit trade are critically needed—
(1)
to recognize the many forms of illicit trade;
(2)
to understand the global scale and detrimental impacts of illicit trade on the United States and the international community;
(3)
to encourage the public to report incidences of illicit trade; and
(4)
to arm the Federal Government with the tools, legal authorities, and financial resources necessary to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle transnational illicit networks and their complicit enablers: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)
expresses support for the designation of June 11, 2026, as Anti-Illicit Trade Awareness Day
to combat illicit trade in all criminal manifestations every day thereafter in the calendar year;
(2)
supports the elevation of illicit trade and related illicit finance to national security priorities and the full integration of countering such illicit trade into the national security strategies of the United States to enhance this multi-dimensional criminal threat through coordinated executive agency actions;
(3)
supports financial intelligence sharing on trade-based money laundering, integrated intelligence fusion centers to more comprehensively combat illicit trade, and a sustained global network of trade transparency units to combat cross-border flows of illicit goods and illicit financial flows; and
(4)
continues to advance coordinated whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to combating illicit trade.