As per a plan conveyed by the G7 bloc, all Russian diamonds of one carat and above will not be accepted into their countries from March 1, 2024, and the curbs will be expanded to diamonds of half a carat or lower from September with traceability systems to be put in place, as per a report in The Hindu.
According to trade officials, the Central Government of India (GOI) has assured that the G7 nations' move to block the entry of Russian diamonds into Indian markets will have minimal disruption to India’s diamond processing businesses.
Stating that India was in touch with the EU and G7’s technical teams, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that rough Russian diamonds were generally small and those cut and polished by India were of less than 0.5 carats, so the impact of the G7 curbs would be less than initially anticipated. “We should be able to export our diamonds without disturbing the proposed sanctions on Russia,” he said.
“They also understand we are an important player because we polish 90-95% of the diamonds of the world, and if there’s an issue with us, the entire industry suffers,” said another official, noting that India’s interventions had led to some fine-tuning in the G7’s plans.
The G7 is now proposing the setting up of a node within their territory to track all the diamonds that eventually find their way to the markets. “India does not directly import diamonds from producing countries but through various mixing centres such as Antwerp or UAE and nearly 99% of the diamonds do not come to us directly. If they come to us via UAE or via the G7 node, it actually doesn’t make a difference to us,” the official explained.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
