RAPAPORT… Now that Venezuela suspended itself from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for a period of at least two years, Avi Paz, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB,) has called upon members of the 29 bourses affiliated to the WFDB to take all measures necessary to ensure that they do not trade, directly or indirectly, in diamonds originating from Venezuela.
“The WFDB and its member bourses have a cast-iron rule that rough diamonds can only be traded when they are accompanied by KP certificates,” Paz stated.
“Any bourse member who trades in rough diamonds without KP certification is liable for expulsion from his bourse, which in all practical terms means the exclusion from the entire diamond business community,” he said.