Belgium's diamond industry again under scrutiny

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukranian president, is to address Belgium’s parliament on Thursday. The enigmatic leader is expected to call for greater sanctions on the country's diamond trade, pushing for ethics over business interests.

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of diamonds and Antwerp the leading importer. Alrolsa, a Russian group of diamond mining companies that specialises in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds, is partly state-owned, and as such its trade with the EU is being scrutinised. While the company still leads the world in diamond mining by volume, its CEO is already on America’s sanctions list, but not yet in the EU.

“Russia gets its money from selling oil and gas, but also from selling diamonds,” Belgian MP Wouter De Vriendt told Politico. “We don’t want to indirectly finance the bombing of Ukrainian schools and hospitals."

Others believe sanctioning will simply redirect trade and hurt Belgian’s traders and producers more than it will hurt Russia. Ultimately sanctions are meant to be primarily painful to the instigators of the war.

An import ban in the EU could push the diamond trade toward Mumbai, Dubai and Tel Aviv, a devasting loss for Belgium’s economy while simply a logistical problem for Russia.

Since 2003 concerns about the origin of diamonds and mining conditions is addressed by certification via the Kimberley Process, which prevents conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream market. The process was set up to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments. While the Kimberley Process weeds out questionable supply chain diamonds, it does not focus government intervention.

A global approach to sanctions and ban on Russian diamonds would be more effective than simply clamping Belgium and Russia’s trade.