Russia’s ministry of finance. To prevent the penetration of synthetic stones into the market of natural diamonds, the natural stones industry needs to support initiatives to classify synthetic diamond products for customs clearance under separate product codes.
This was announced by Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev during a meeting with Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, Chairman of the Kimberley Process, and Ambassador of the Republic of India to Russia D. Bala Venkatesh Varma.
“We hope that India will actively support our work at the national level, ensuring the adoption of separate customs codes for synthetic diamonds in India, tightening the regulation of the domestic market to ensure consumer protection. Russia has already passed a law prohibiting synthetics from being called precious stones,” Moiseev said.
According to him, the work to promote this initiative within the KP is under way, it includes the implementation of special 6-digit codes (HS codes) for synthetic rough stones and diamonds: 7104 21 and 7104 91 respectively. In March this year, within the framework of the WTO The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Committee meeting, the proposed changes were unanimously approved. A final decision is expected at the council meeting in June. In case of successful completion of the final stage, changes to the Harmonized System will take effect from January 1, 2022.
