Gaborone, Botswana—

Africa’s leading diamond producer Botswana has written to the Group of Seven major industrial nations seeking to overturn an initiative requiring all producers to send gems to Belgium for certification. This comes after the G7 took action to block the import of diamonds mined in Russia.

Botswana President Mokwezi Masisi told diplomats in Gaborone on Wednesday that the G7’s traceability mechanism placed an unfair burden on African diamond producers.

The G7 is an informal grouping of the world’s seven developed economies, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. They require that from March 1, all diamonds entering G7 countries must pass through Antwerp, Belgium, to determine their origin.

The controls are aimed at preventing Russian diamonds from withdrawing from the global market amid concerns that Russian diamond revenues will be used to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We cannot agree to undermine our pursuit of development by being responsible for the valorization of our own resources,” Masisi said. “Because if you make Belgium, Antwerp the single node of validation, my God, it’s shameless. When we’re mining diamonds here When we are convinced that they are mined here, you add another layer of cost, delay, time and risk to the direct interaction with the diamonds. Customers and customers, you still take them to Antwerp and that is unacceptable. “

Masisi said the G7 had not consulted with African diamond producers before taking the measures in March.

“When the G7 makes these proposals, it’s not good for our interests, particularly Botswana’s, because we are at least one of the largest producers outside of Russia,” he said. “They’re basically completely regulating our industry without our involvement. You can’t do that without our involvement, especially Botswana. They do reach out and send people here. That involvement Pretty condescending. They’ve basically made up their mind.”

Masisi said he was lobbying other leaders to protest the controls.

Botswana joined Angola and Namibia, two other African diamond producers, in sending a letter protesting the G7 move but has yet to receive a response.

“We wrote a letter, we wrote the main letter, we shared it with the other producing countries, namely Namibia and Angola, we asked them to co-sign, and with some minor revisions, we co-signed and sent it to Seven We haven’t had a response yet from the Group of Nations. Apparently they said they were consulting but the request was already in effect and luckily the World Diamond Council also protested because the flow of diamond trade was severely disrupted and had cost implications and Delay.”

Botswana in particular already has advanced verification and traceability systems in place, Masisi said.

The G7 move is seen as undermining the Kimberley Process, an existing commitment to remove conflict diamonds from global supply chains.

“The African Diamond Producers Association is quite right to protect their interests,” said Jaff Bamenjo, coordinator of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Alliance, which is an observer to the Kimberley Process.

“That is reasonable. However, it is also right for the G7 to protect the values ​​and principles they cherish and defend. For us in the Kimberley Process Civil Society Alliance, the main question is the extent to which we accommodate each other’s legitimate concerns. But I It should be said that, in my opinion, the G7 made a mistake from the beginning by not consulting African diamond producers from the earliest stages.”

Hans Merket, a Belgian diamond industry researcher, told VOA that traceability measures are necessary but also need to respond to the concerns of African producers.

“Significant progress in traceability in the diamond trade is long overdue,” Merkert said. “Too many players have been content with a lack of transparency over the years. I think the delay in the implementation of the scheme in the first month was a growing pain that has been partially resolved with some adjustments. I think the added cost This is manageable considering the scheme only applies to more valuable diamonds around 1 carat.”

Recently, more than 100 diamond companies wrote to the Antwerp World Diamond Center to express concern about the delays in diamond customs clearance since the G7 introduced traceability measures.