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June 22, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextSENATE RESOLUTION 783—EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR THE DESIGNATION OF JUNE
11, 2026, AS “ANTI-ILLICIT TRADE AWARENESS DAY”
Mr. CASSIDY (for himself and Mr. Whitehouse) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:
S. Res. 783
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
Resolved, 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.