G-7 to ban Russian diamonds starting next year
Ukraine.
While the G-7 and its European allies have been trying to find additional ways to squeeze Russia’s economy to constrain its ability to fund its war in Ukraine, diamonds have remained a stumbling block.
Earlier attempts to sanction Russian gems in Europe had met resistance from leading importer nations like Belgium, which had argued that a simple ban would just shift the lucrative gem trade elsewhere.
The G-7 said Wednesday that it will ban all imports of rough diamonds directly from Russia from Jan. 1.
That will expand to include Russian diamonds that have been processed in third countries from Mar. 1, with a full traceability system implemented by the start of September.
The diamond industry has spent much of the past three months aggressively lobbying G-7 decision makers behind the scenes about how the a ban should be implemented, focusing on the method used to trace diamonds.
Belgium has proposed that all diamonds are processed though the port city of Antwerp, the once-dominant global trading hub that has been steadily losing influence to rival hubs in India and Dubai.
Under that scheme, all rough diamonds would have to registered onto a digital ledger in the city before being flown back to major trading and manufacturing centers elsewhere.
The proposal sparked strong opposition from many diamond-producing countries and some of the industry’s dominant players, who said it was unworkable and would damage the diamond trade. They proposed another system where the industry would enhance and expand existing models of origin certification.
The G-7 said it will continue to consult with diamond-producing and manufacturing countries on how to design and implement the tracing system.
