India urges G7 to delay ban on Russian diamonds as rules are unclear: report
India, home to 90% of the world's diamond cutting and polishing industry, is crucial to the ban's implementation.
India has urged Group of Seven (G7) countries to postpone an upcoming ban on Russian diamonds as rules for tracing the origin of gemstones remain unclear, two sources aware of the matter said .
India, home to 90% of the world's diamond cutting and polishing industry, is crucial to the ban's implementation.
New Delhi has also sought greater clarity in its talks with G7 leaders, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Earlier this month, the G7 countries announced an immediate ban on Russian diamonds from January 1, followed by gradual restrictions on indirect imports of Russian gemstones from around March 1. A new system to trace the origin of the gemstones will be introduced in September. .
Russia is the largest producer of rough diamonds in the world by volume. New restrictions on trade in Russian gemstones are part of the bloc's broader measures aimed at limiting Moscow's revenues that support and finance its invasion of Ukraine.
“The timetable to impose restrictions on indirect imports from Russia in three to four months is impractical because the rules on how the origin of a gemstone will be traced are not clear,” one of the sources said.
India has also expressed reservations about the G7's new 'traceability-based verification and certification system', which may require sharing data on Indian companies, the first source said.
Some data may be sensitive and companies may not feel comfortable sharing such information, he said.
The federal Commerce Department, which is involved in talks with the G7 on proposed restrictions, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
India mainly processes smaller Russian diamonds and therefore expects minimal disruption to trade, a government official said earlier this month.
Still, the proposed ban would impact the diamond supply chain, industry officials say.
The Indian diamond sector is already experiencing weaker demand. The country's polished diamond exports fell 29% to $10 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, which started in April.
Last fiscal year ending March 31, it exported polished diamonds worth more than $22 billion. The industry, mainly located in the western state of Gujarat, employs millions of people in small and medium-sized businesses.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: December 20, 2023 | 5:02 PM IST