Importers will not need to submit proof of a diamond’s country of mining when registering shipments to the US but should keep the right documentation for inspection, according to guidelines the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) released last week.
In January, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced a requirement to state the “country of mining” for all imports of diamonds and diamond jewelry entering the country.
Earlier this month, the government agency told industry members these declarations “should be verifiable with the documentation provided with the entry.”
However, these papers will not be mandatory when filing shipments in the Automated Customs Environment (ACE) processing system, the JVC explained in a member alert last Thursday.
“We’ve been told that the additional documentation (proof of origin) isn’t going to be required by the ACE system,” Sara Yood, the JVC’s CEO and general counsel, clarified in a separate email to Rapaport News on Tuesday. “An importer can choose to upload it with an entry, or they can leave it out but will need to provide it when shipments are spot-checked at customs.”
CBP continues to require self-certification statements for applicable diamond imports to verify they do not contain Russian inputs, the legal guidance group said in the member alert.
The new rules, which will go into effect in April, apply to loose diamonds and finished jewelry, but not to lab-grown diamonds, the JVC explained. CBP has “acknowledged” certain provisions for “grandfathered” goods — diamonds that predate sanctions on Russia — but has not confirmed how entry will work, the committee pointed out.
The CBP has not said explicitly that the requirements would apply only to 0.50-carat diamonds and larger, the size range for current import restrictions on Russian diamonds, “but that is what we expect to happen,” the JVC continued. While CBP has not given a start date within April, “you should prepare for April 1 to be safe,” it said.
Addressing retailers, the JVC added: “It is important to maintain strong relationships with your suppliers, as you will need them to provide you with this information in order to import loose diamonds or finished diamond jewelry.”
Image: A diamond under a loupe. (Shutterstock)
