BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s prime minister stated his nation, which has the most important curiosity within the international diamond commerce within the European Union, is supporting a ban on Russian diamonds as a part of sanctions concentrating on President Vladimir Putin’s authorities for its struggle in opposition to Ukraine.
This got here throughout Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyya’s go to to Brussels on Wednesday. He has repeatedly requested for such a transfer for the reason that begin of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
For months, the Group of Seven superior economies and the EU have been engaged on a option to hint and prohibit the commerce in Russian diamonds to forestall it from skirting the sanctions. Russia exports about $4 billion price of tough diamonds a 12 months, practically a 3rd of the world’s whole, in response to numerous estimates.
Requested when the ban will enter into drive, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated, “the objective is … January 1st of 2024.”
In line with The Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the world’s most essential diamond buying and selling hub, 84% of all tough diamonds mined worldwide are traded within the Belgian metropolis, making it a very powerful gateway to the world for Russian diamonds.
“It has taken a while, as a result of we wish to keep away from that diamond’s ban can be circumvented,” De Croo stated, sitting subsequent to Zelenskyy.
“In the event you solely do it on the wholesale markets, then it is going to be traded to different diamond facilities on this planet,” he added. “And we’ll nonetheless have it in our outlets, and it will make no distinction for Russia. This full traceability and this full banning on the retail markets is the one option to guarantee that Russia isn’t financing the struggle anymore with these diamonds.”
Diamond imports from Russia to the EU haven’t been hit by the 27-nation bloc’s measures to this point, which have harm many sectors of the Russian financial system, together with the profitable fuel and oil.
In Belgium, the diamond sector accounts for six,600 direct jobs and 26,000 oblique jobs, with annual commerce amounting to 37 billion {dollars}. Diamonds signify about 5% of whole Belgian exports to the EU and 15% outdoors the European bloc.
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