In mid-June 2024, I was honored to join a delegation of key industry stakeholders to Washington, D.C., to meet with top lawmakers and share concerns about implementation plans for import restrictions of Russian diamonds into the United States. The delegation, headed by Jewelers of America (JA)President & CEO David J. Bonaparte, consisted of Bonaparte; Jon Bridge, Chair/Counsel Emeritus of Ben Bridge Jeweler; Dave Meleski, President & CEO of the Richline Group and Chairman of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC); Matthew Swibel, VP, Sustainability and Social Impact of Signet Jewelers; and myself as Immediate Past President of the Diamond Manufacturers Importers Association of America (DMIA) and President of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA).
We met with several Democratic and Republican lawmakers and their staff and members from both the House and the Senate, who serve on committees overseeing trade-related issues. These meetings highlighted the possible supply chain disruptions stemming from the 2nd round of proposed G7 diamond import restrictions beginning September 1 and the resulting consequences to the diamond and jewelry industry and the consumer. Not limited to, but an example is the increased costs to American jewelry consumers and industry, representing more than 50 percent of the global market.
We touched upon the following topics:
• The financial, operational, and supply chain harms posed by the G7/EU proposal for a single node/import channel of rough diamonds through Belgium.
• The urgent need for a “grandfathering” clause that applies to all diamonds and diamond jewelry imported into the U.S. before March 1, 2024, which is necessary to protect the massive value, trillions of dollars of diamonds and diamond jewelry belonging to the U.S. consumers, and of course, the inventories of the U.S. diamond jewelry industry.
• The benefits of maintaining attestation of rough and loose diamonds imported into the U.S. and the current certification systems in place at the producer country level.
• The value of issuing additional guidance to clarify for both the industry and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials that the current one-carat import restrictions apply only to individual, loose diamonds and not the total weight of all diamonds in finished jewelry.
The delegation’s efforts aimed to ensure that we – the leading organizations in the American diamond, gem, and jewelry industry, and trade, inform, guide, and ultimately work alongside the U.S. government to minimize unnecessary disruptions to the U.S. diamond industry.
In a press statement issued by JA, Bonaparte expressed our shared concerns about the additional requirements that could take effect on September 1 – including adopting a European Union proposal that would force all G7/U.S.-bound diamonds of a half a carat and above through a single import channel in Belgium.
Stay tuned! We will keep you posted on all further developments and, as always, any other matters concerning our great industry!