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WDC: Despite successes, CDTA and KP need improvement

October 02, 2006

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New York—In response to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that more must be done to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the United States, the World Diamond Council (WDC) issued a statement on Friday, affirming the need to improve the Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

Although the GAO report offered "no evidence that there are conflict diamonds entering the U.S. market," WDC Chairman Eli Izhakoff said in the statement, the WDC is in full agreement with the report in its assessment of both the success and weaknesses of the implementation of the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA).

"The report acknowledged that the U.S. systems for reporting rough-diamond statistics and controlling imports and exports of rough diamonds have improved. However, it also noted that there are vulnerabilities to the system and provided several recommendations for improvements," Izhakoff said.

According to the statement, the GAO report claims the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP) covers 99.8 percent of global production of rough diamonds. This success, Izhakoff said, is a direct result of the collaboration between the diamond industry, NGOs and governments, in which the United States played a crucial and leading role. To sustain the KP's integrity and effectiveness, however, Izhakoff said the GAO's recommendations should be implemented immediately.

"The WDC is committed to continue working with the U.S. government to further improve the existing systems, increase the accuracy of U.S. rough-diamond trade data, as well as enhance procedures for inspecting rough-diamond imports and exports," Izhakoff said.

Committed to building on the success the KP has already achieved, the WDC is also actively working to improve the KP on the export side. It recently appealed to all KP participants to act swiftly on reports that rough diamonds from the Ivory Coast are being smuggled into Ghana, bypassing KP procedures, the statement said.

"It is our hope that by addressing the issue of conflict diamonds at its source, the WDC, along with our partners, will be able to further improve upon the KP," Izhakoff said.
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TOPICS
Business | Imports and Exports | Trade

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