EU intends to limit trade in Russian diamonds

The European Union plans to limit the trade in Russian diamonds, declared European Council President Charles Michel to reporters ahead of the G7 summit in Japan.

“We will limit the trade in Russian diamonds. Russian diamonds are not eternal, and we will openly and frankly explain why these sanctions are necessary and justified,” he said.

The EU is now working on sanctions that will make it harder to circumvent existing restrictions, Michel added.

At the summit, the G7 countries intend to discuss how to monitor the trade in Russian diamonds – the imposition of sanctions against it is planned at a “later stage”, transmits Reuters, citing an EU representative. As the agency notes, Belgium strongly opposes these sanctions, fearing the consequences for the Antwerp Diamond Center. The restrictions, the center calculated, will deprive it of about 30% of its business.

At the summit, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also expected to announce a ban on the supply of Russian diamonds, which will “freeze” the diamond market by $4 billion. writes sky news. The restrictions will also affect the supply of copper, aluminum and nickel of Russian origin. In addition, the sanctions package will include 86 individuals and companies from the Russian military-industrial complex.

At the end of March 2022, the UK authorities imposed sanctions on Alrosa, which supplies about a third of the world’s rough diamonds. In April of the same year, sanctions against the company were imposed by the United States, Canada and Australia. The EU in March imposed a ban on the import of luxury goods, including precious stones. After the introduction of sanctions, the Swiss group Richemont (which owns the brands Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre) and the American Tiffany & Co., owned by LVMH, refused to purchase Russian diamonds.

Last September, Bloomberg wrote that the global gem market divided divided into two camps because of sanctions against Alrosa: a group of buyers from India and Belgium are secretly buying up large volumes of diamonds mined in Russia on favorable terms, while many Western companies are trying to abandon Russian products.

At the same time, the media reported on the discussion in the EU of sanctions against Alrosa, but in October, EUobserver, citing European diplomats, reported that the EU member countries decided not to include Alrosa in the new sanctions package. The removal of the company from the sanctions list, according to sources, came after Belgian diplomats and lobbyists at the Antwerp Diamond Center warned that a hit on the Russian diamond sector would cost thousands of jobs in the city, home to the world’s largest diamond exchange.