Diamond importers should provide documentation to verify their origin declarations, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has told industry members following the release of new filing rules.
Last month’s announcement of a requirement to specify the “country of mining” for shipments into the US from April prompted confusion in the trade, as the instructions lacked detail about their scope, timing, and the evidence needed.
In clarifications last week, CBP said each declaration “should be verifiable with the documentation provided with the entry,” according to people who had received emails from the government agency.
“Documents such as certificates of origin, certificates of mining, and purchase orders constitute proof of where the diamond originated,” some of the messages continued. “More than one country can be declared as the country of mining on an entry, but each one will require a separate line on the entry summary.”
The notes also addressed the topic of substantial transformation, the principle by which items significantly changed in a third country — such as Russian rough diamonds polished in India — adopt the new country as their origin.
“Cutting, finishing and polishing do not qualify as originating criteria unless a substantial transformation has occurred to the item,” according to one of the emails, seen by Rapaport News. “In a situation where substantial transformation occurs, the country of mining and the country of origin would both need to be listed.”
A CBP spokesperson confirmed substantial parts of the clarifications in an email to Rapaport News on Friday. Members of the diamond industry received the information through various channels, including the Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) and Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) trade calls, she added.
However, the responses still did not clarify whether proof would become an absolute requirement, the diamond weights to which they would apply, how they pertained to finished jewelry, and many other outstanding issues. Industry leaders suspect the lower threshold will be 0.50 carats, which is the scope of the current US ban on imports of Russian diamonds.
Image: Polished diamonds. (Shutterstock)
