This bill would increase the power of the U.S. Customs Service to enforce current trade laws and ensure that U.S. trading partners comply with present trade agreements, which would result in reduced trade barriers and increased access to global markets for U.S. products. The bill also would establish a division of Textile Enforcement within the U.S. Customs Service to help enforce current transshipping laws. Transshipping is the illegal exporting of goods that do not display the label of the country in which they were actually manufactured. This practice costs the U.S. textile industry millions of dollars and workers thousands of jobs.
Cotton is Mississippi's third largest agricultural commodity.