The Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA), signed by United States President George W. Bush on 25 April 2003, implemented the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) to regulate the commercial sale of diamonds. On July 29, 2003, Bush signed Executive Order 13312, which described the implementation of the Clean Diamond Trade act. The act requires that all diamonds imported to the United States or exported from the United States have a Kimberley Process Certificate. The act aims to prohibit the importation of diamonds whose mining fuels conflict in the country of origin.
H.R. 1415
H.R. 1415 has 13 sections, the first of which names the act as the “Clean Diamond Trade Act”. The Act defines the motivation behind the passage as due to the human rights issues associated with the rough diamond trade. It also addresses previous action that has been taken to address threats due to conflicts coming from rough diamond trade. The act mentions the United Nations Security Council prohibiting states from exporting weapons to countries affected by diamond conflicts, in addition to mandating that states prohibit importation of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone and Liberia (3). The United States subsequently restricted the importation of diamonds to those containing a certificate of origin.
Section 4 describes the measures for the importation and exportation of rough diamonds, addressing prohibition of diamonds not controlled through the KPCS and the ability of the president to waive requirements in certain circumstances. In Section 5, the act discusses the regulatory aspect, emphasizing the importance of keeping full records of anyone attempting to import or export rough diamonds. Section 5c also describes the oversight procedures, but does not specify which Government agency is in charge of conducting annual reviews. Section 6 delegates importing authority to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and exporting authority to the Bureau of the Census.
Section 8 deals with enforcement, and describes the penalties for violating any aspect of the act. This section specifies a penalty not exceeding $10,000 for anyone who violates an aspect of the act, and not more than $50,000 or 10 years in prison for anyone who willfully violates the act. Section 10 promotes the importance of the executive branch publishing statistics on imports and exports of rough diamonds, and Section 11 mandates that annual reports be released every 12 months, although it does not specify who will be compiling these reports to give to congress. Section 12 states that 2 years after the effective date of the act, the Comptroller General of the United States will submit a report on the effectiveness of the act, in addition to any recommendations of modifications to the act.
Background information
History
It is estimated that around 3.7 million people in Africa have died as a result of wars funded by conflict diamonds. Failed elections, money laundering, civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, and other parts of Africa) etc. have encouraged a significant amount of illegal gem sales, with profits aiding rebel forces like the Revolutionary United Front and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and allowing for the continuation of civil unrest. Though reports differ, it is estimated UNITA produced about $600 million in diamonds annually in the late 1990s. These funds are used for foreign representation, travel, commodity procurement, and arms purchases, among other things. Angola's decades-long civil war looked as though it was ending in 1992, when its first multi-party democratic elections were held, but UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi declared the election "neither free nor fair" after he lost, and the fighting resumed. (The United States, under the Ronald Reagan administration and his successor, George H. W. Bush, had strongly supported Savimbi and the UNITA rebels in the late 1970s as he advocated for democracy and freedom during the Cold War.) The United Nations took several steps to attempt to discipline these rebel actions, including restricting travel of UNITA senior officials, and prohibiting the sale of petroleum and related products from any country to Angola through United Nations Security Council Resolution 864. United States president Bill Clinton issued executive order 12865 to add U.S. sanctions in addition to the UN's efforts. In 1998 UNITA repealed another peace treaty and returned to war with the Angolan army, prompting the United Nations Security Council to investigate sanctions-busting operations and helping focus international attention on the link between diamonds and conflict in Africa.