Conflict diamonds may be entering the U.S

[mdx]

A current Reuters report published at the Antwerp Diamond List website

Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

"Conflict diamonds" sold illegally to finance civil wars, may be making their way into the United States, despite an international pact to end trade in the gemstones, the Government Accountability Office said on Wednesday.

The United States, the world's largest consumer market for diamond jewelry, does not inspect rough diamond imports to certify their origins, a GAO report said. It added that because of spotty statistics on diamond imports and exports, the country is "still vulnerable to illicit trade of rough diamonds."

Full Article: Conflict diamonds may be entering the U.S.: GAO

Johan

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

A rather patchy bit of reporting?

Diamonds exported under Kimberly are by definition not illicit.
Diamonds imported to america can only come in with the exporting countries seal.

I believe the number of Kimberely complaint nations is more like 70, and not 46 (as stated in the Rueters story.

What has checking the rough got to do with the price of eggs? There is no evidence that anyone can identify rough - so what s there to check for?

Liberia would anyway be smuggling diamonds mined in Sierra Leonie - and they would then need to be smuggled back into a 3rd country in order to be ''legitimized'' and turn up at USA Customs. Seems a bit far fetched - and if they were going to smuggle illicit diamonds from Liberia, why not smuggle them back into Sirra Leonie and export them legitimately after paying the export taxes. And then why bother smuggling anything anywhere????


I am sorry - but i can not understand what this story is about?????????????
Did I miss something really obvious Johan?

 

[codex57]

I''m sorry, but that article wasn''t useful at all.

Don''t give me "May". That''s weak. That''s like saying, "There MAY be Martians among us." You can say that about anything.

Find out for sure, then report about it. That article was pathetic. Didn''t offer suggestions as to how they may be getting in, what are the suspicions, ways to fix the problem, etc. Article had no redeeming value whatsoever. Waste of bandwith.

 

[whatmeworry]

I looked at the report on GAO''s website. This is the link to the highlights which don''t say much but all the details are in the full report (there''s a link to it on the highlight page).
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06978high.pdf

I can''t say I understand it all but when importing rough, the U.S. only periodically checks the rough to see if it matches the seal. Not sure what a seal states but I suspect it must mention carat weight of the rough. So there is a possibility that more rough could enter the U.S. than what is stated on the seal. The second weak link in the importing chain is that the U.S. does not confrim the seal with the foreign exporter. So I guess the seal could be tampered with. On the exporting side, the U.S. apparently had been exporting more rough than it has imported. So one possibility is that the volume of imports has been underreported. On exporting side, again the U.S. does not physically inspect the outgoing packages of rough to see if it matches the seal.

 

[mdx]

No Gary I don’t think you missed anything, that’s why I posted the article.

This is like the blind leading the partially sighted

Johan

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Yes Johan, and good summary whatmeworry.

I made a mistake - there are 46 Kimberely participants - but more if you seperate the EU nations.