U.S. trade laws only matter when they are enforced
EnforcementNOW is an industry-led movement that casts a light on the systemic breakdown in trade law enforcement and gives industry a unified voice in their call to restore the rule of law
"We write to express our strong concern about the People's Republic of China's (PRC) ongoing efforts to evade U.S. trade enforcement... we urge your agencies to strengthen enforcement against the PRC's unlawful trade practices, including by criminally prosecuting trade criminals who steal from the United States Treasury and exploit American workers."
What is Trade Crime?
Trade crime is the deliberate, systematic violation of U.S. trade laws to gain unlawful competitive advantage in cross border trade — undermining fair competition, American workers and national security.
These losses are not incidental—they are engineered. Industrial-scale trade fraud, enabled by weakened enforcement, must be understood for what it is: a strategic economic assault designed to weaken American industry without direct confrontation.
How Did We Get Here?
The Quiet Unraveling of American Trade Enforcement
Five decisions. Thirty years.
None of these decisions were wrong at the time. But by 2018, firms had already learned how to exploit enforcement gaps. Once Section 232 and Section 301 raised the stakes, more of the economy depended on those gaps being closed. The problem was not sudden failure. It was that enforcement capacity had been allowed to erode under assumptions about trade and globalization that no longer held.
"The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares."
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 12
Hamilton argued for lawful commerce -- disciplined by rules, enforced by institutions, and oriented toward national strength. EnforcementNOW exists to elevate industry's voice and organize it in support of consistent, effective enforcement.