MUMBAI: Amid persistent lobbying by Indian diamond houses and trade biggies like DeBeers, the European Union (EU) has deferred the start of a harsher sanctions regime on Russian diamonds by six months, to March 2025.
A few other relaxations, like ring-fencing old stocks, announced by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, would give a further breather to the local diamantaires which constitute the world’s largest importer of rough diamonds.
According to a statement issued by the Commission on Monday, the ban on import of Russian diamonds would not extend to either rough or polished stones which were there in the EU and other countries (like India) before the beginning of the sanctions in March 2024.
Under the original sanctions timeline, between March 1, 2024 and August 31, 2024, import of rough stones of one carat and above was prohibited. A sterner sanctions rule was announced from September 1, 2024 when the weight threshold was lowered to 0.5 carats – the point at which the regime would have begun to hurt India seriously.
Now, as per EU’s latest decision, the sanctions regulations which were supposed to kick in from September 1 would come into force from March 1, 2025.
Besides, temporary imports or exports of jewellery for trade fairs or repairs would not be affected by the sanctions.
The Commission has also postponed the “ban on jewellery incorporating Russian diamonds processed in third countries other than Russia until the Council decides to activate the ban in the light of action taken within the G7 to pursue that measure.”
However, from next March a “full-traceability scheme” for imports of rough and polished natural diamonds will become mandatory. This is aimed at tracking the origin of rough diamonds entering the world’s affluent markets and counter moves to sell stones from Russian mines sneaking into EU and G7 markets. For this, the EU has proposed a central node in Belgium which would test the origin of imported roughs – a plan that has been opposed by Africa, India, and trade biggies like DeBeers on the grounds that it would complicate logistics and push up costs.
At a meeting with EU in May, New Delhi and the local industry body the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) had proposed a less-disruptive process where India can serve as another node for tracking the mined stones. India imports nine out of 10 stones mined in the world.
Monday’s announcement marked the 14th package of sanctions announced by the EU since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
