The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) has suspended its membership in the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), citing the global trade group’s “recent actions,” including its response to the US tariff crisis.
The Ramat Gan bourse’s board of directors made the unanimous and immediate decision at a meeting on Monday, the IDE wrote in a letter to the WFDB the same day.
“The decision follows multiple requests made by us to receive information regarding the federation’s activities — requests which regrettably remained unanswered,” according to the letter to WFDB secretary-general Rony Unterman. “Additionally, recent actions taken within the federation have caused harm to the Israeli diamond industry, and this has further contributed to the board’s decision.”
The IDE will “focus its international engagement on close cooperation with the World Diamond Council (WDC) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), which we view as the leading global bodies in the industry,” the letter continued.
‘Narrow vision’
The “recent actions” refer to media quotes from WFDB president Yoram Dvash about the new import duties, IDE president Nissim Zuaretz told Rapaport News.
Dvash, who is also a former IDE president, intends to “promote a blanket exemption” for diamonds, arguing that country-by-country efforts to obtain concessions reflected “narrow vision,” Israeli newspaper Calcalist quoted him as saying in an article on Sunday. This is because most polished stones on the market were manufactured in India and therefore attract 26% tariffs on import to the US, irrespective of which country shipped them.
Zuaretz claimed Dvash was trying to portray himself as the leader of efforts to obtain a global exemption, when in fact the WDC — according to Zuaretz — was heading this. Dvash’s comments also risk damaging the Israeli industry’s campaign to lobby the Israeli government, Zuaretz cautioned.
These claims are “untrue and frankly absurd,” Dvash responded in a statement to Rapaport News on Tuesday.
The WFDB “has always worked together with other major organizations, such as the WDC, to improve the position of the diamond sector worldwide,” Dvash continued. “This is the way we operated concerning the [Group of Seven (G7)] sanctions on Russian diamonds. We are again working together now to have diamonds as a category be exempted from US import tariffs.”
Dvash said he had spoken with WDC president Feriel Zerouki and agreed on a strategy identical to the one in the Calcalist article. (Zerouki told Rapaport News the strategy so far was to unite as an industry.)
The WFDB president has also invited heads of leading trade organizations and bourses to an online meeting in the coming days to decide on a plan. “The question is not who leads but what we achieve,” he said.
Dvash also said his quotes were not a criticism of any bourse. He has written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ask him to work on lowering US tariffs on all natural polished diamonds and to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seeking an exemption for the category.
“We are all part of the same supply chain, and if an Israeli or a Belgian diamantaire exports…polished diamonds manufactured in India [to the US], they will be charged the same import tariff,” said Dvash, who owns Israel-based manufacturer Y. Dvash Diamonds. “I am the last person who would want to do any harm to the Israel Diamond Exchange. I am a member of the exchange, and my business is based [in Israel].”
Global challenges
The IDE’s decision to leave the WFDB reflected a “need on the one hand to preserve the Israeli industry and at the same time the need to work globally with one professional and mission-focused body,” Zuaretz explained in a Hebrew-language message to IDE members on Monday. The move saves more than $29,000 per year for exchange members, he added.
Founded in 1947, the WFDB is an umbrella body for almost 30 diamond bourses, clubs and industry organizations around the world. It represents and promotes the global trading sector and enables arbitration between member bourses and between individuals at those exchanges.
The IDE’s move was “unexpected and rash,” Dvash told Rapaport News. “At a time when the global diamond industry is facing some of the gravest challenges of all times, the IDE is choosing to break rank and to go its own way.”
The Israeli industry has always been an important part of the global diamond sector and an active participant in the WFDB, which represents all of the world’s major bourses, Dvash noted.
“It’s not clear why they are choosing now to break away from the other diamond bourses,” Dvash commented. “We are stronger when we are united [and] when we all work together.”
Update, April 8, 2025: A response from WDC president Feriel Zerouki has been added to this article.
Image: The Israel Diamond Exchange. (Nicole Bednarz/Rapaport News)
