By Jennifer Heebner, Editor in Chief
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued some guidance for U.S. companies to better adhere to Russian Diamond sanctions that went into effect on Friday, March 1. That’s the day when G7 nations, including the United States, implemented restrictions on rough and polished Diamonds originating in the Russian Federation that are substantially transformed in other countries.
Specifically, Russian-origin Diamonds weighing a carat or more that are polished elsewhere and imported into G7 countries are now banned, and as of Sept. 1, 2024, the ban extends to include lab-grown Diamonds, jewelry, and watches incorporating Diamonds with a weight of 0.5 carat and above.
These measures follow a December 2023 Executive Order signed by President Biden.
Guidance from CBP
CBP now instructs Diamond business traders to provide self-certification statements for affected commodities with imports and exports to other Foreign Trading Zones (FTZ). These statements must be uploaded to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Document Imaging System (DIS).
CBP mandates the trade provide the following on company letterhead (and saved as a PDF) for each Entry, Entry Summary, or FTZ admission:
- CBP as the Agency Code;
- Other as the Official Document Name/Description;
- Other as the Document Type;
- Other as the Document Label Code; and
- CBP03 as the DocCode.
The document must also contain the following language:
For nonindustrial Diamonds with a weight of 1.0 carat or greater, effective March 1, 2024:
“I certify that the non-industrial diamonds in this shipment were not mined, extracted, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Russian Federation, notwithstanding whether such diamonds have been substantially transformed into other products outside of the Russian Federation.”
For Diamond jewelry and unsorted Diamonds, effective March 1, 2024:
“I certify that the diamond jewelry and unsorted diamonds in this shipment are not of Russian Federation origin or were not exported from the Russian Federation.”
Expect more filing requirements down the road.
JVC Dedicated Sanctions Page
To aid the trade in understanding the regulations, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) unveiled a Sanctions resource page. On it are answers to key questions that the industry may have. For example, “What kind of information do I need to keep about diamond shipments coming into the U.S.?” A bullet-point list of information is provided. Affected harmonized tariff codes as outlined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are also linked to, and types of “documentary evidence” as outlined by the G7 are also listed.
In a JVC Member Alert issued last week, the organization shared that the “G7 technical committee is working on a traceability mechanism for diamonds that will be tested between March 1 and September 1, the ‘sunrise period.’ We don’t yet know either how this will be structured nor how it will be enforced.”
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