International organizations urge the United States to intensify efforts to combat illegal gold trading.

The US authorities are facing increasing pressure to intensify efforts to combat illegal gold trade, which has become one of the largest and fastest-growing illegal economies in the western hemisphere. According to a report released on Wednesday by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Alliance, the dramatic increase in illegal gold mining and smuggling in several South American countries has evolved into a crisis that the US cannot ignore. The financial initiative organization is calling on the US Congress to pass a law to address the environmental and social impacts of illegal gold mining. FACT also hopes to use illegal mining as a basis for money laundering prosecutions and to include gold in cross-border currency reporting. The report states that the US currently lacks effective tools to address illegal mining, a situation that has been further complicated by the policy shifts of the Trump administration and staff reductions this year. FACT also urges the US to increase enforcement and prosecution efforts against transnational criminal networks involved in illegal gold trade, implement sanctions against gold, and restore funding support for international projects to combat illegal gold mining.