Declaration by the Russian Ministry of Finance. In order to prevent synthetic diamonds from being placed on the natural diamond market, the ‘natural stone industry‘ should support initiatives to classify synthetic products under separate codes for customs clearance purposes.
The announcement was made by Aleksey Moiseev, Deputy Minister of Finance, during a meeting with Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, President of the Kimberley Process, and D. Bala Venkatesh Varma, Ambassador of the Indian Republic to Russia.
“We hope that India will actively support our work at the national level to ensure that separate customs codes for synthetic diamonds are adopted in India and to tighten domestic market regulation. We want to ensure consumer protection. In addition, Russia has already passed a law prohibiting the designation of synthetic gemstones as gemstones,” said Aleksey Moiseev.
According to him, this initiative is being promoted within the KP. It includes the introduction of special 6-digit codes (HS codes) for synthetic rough stones and diamonds: 7104 21 and 7104 91 respectively. The Commission considers that the use of the HS code for the production of synthetic rough stones and diamonds makes an important contribution to the development of the European Union. In March of this year, the proposed amendments were adopted unanimously at the WTO (World Trade Organisation) Commission on Harmonised Commodity Coding and Description of Commodities meeting. A final decision is expected at the Governing Council meeting in June. If the final phase is successfully completed, the amendments to the Harmonised System will enter into force on 1 January 2022.
During the meeting, representatives of both states also discussed other initiatives from the Russian side, which will become president of the KP next year. Initiatives included the establishment of a permanent secretariat for the Kimberley Process, one of the key areas of ongoing organizational reform, and the establishment of responsible supply chains.
