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The conclusion was that the “Country of Origin” was where the product underwent a “substantive transformation” – in this case, where the wool was made into yarn – and this rule has since applied to every product imported into the US, including diamonds. #Diamond rush secret stage 2 free#When the rules governing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were decided, there was an intense debate revolving around US import duties, about the "Country of Origin” of Argentinian wool which had been transformed into yarn, then exported to Canada and manufactured into woollen shirts to be sold in the US. Mix Russian rough diamonds with diamonds from another country and they are no longer Russian diamonds.īut there’s an additional problem. The Kimberley Process (KP) requires that any rough natural diamond crossing an international border (the EU is considered to be a single country for KP purposes) must be accompanied by a government-issued KP Certificate which states the country of origin as part of the fight against the so-called “blood diamonds.”īut rough diamonds from different countries are often mixed together for trading purposes, and it is acceptable for KP purposes to classify these parcels as being of “Mixed Origin”. Doesn’t that make a bit of a mockery out of the US’ sanctions? It would seem so. Well, if you read the Financial Times, Bloomberg, the New York Times, or maybe you are close to the diamond industry, you will probably be aware that Russian diamonds are still both legally and illegally entering the global supply chain. It seemed that Russian diamonds were being locked out of the global market. Even moving Russian diamonds was starting to prove problematic Lloyds and the big insurers stopped insuring them, the major Western airlines refused to fly them, the major security services companies (like Brinks or Malca Amit) declined to transport them. By executive order, President Biden banned the import of Russian diamonds into the US and many of the big jewellery brands like Tiffany, Kering, Richemont, LVMH, Signet, Chopard and Brilliant Earth, to name but a few, made it immediately clear they would no longer buy Russian diamonds. Russian banks, which Alrosa’s customers used to pay for their diamonds, were denied access to the SWIFT international payments system. In February this year, Russia invaded Ukraine, and OFAC sanctioned Russian diamond miner Alrosa (33% owned by the Moscow government) by designating it as a Specially Designated National (SDN). What, you might ask, has this got to do with US-based OFAC? Let’s come back to that later. ![]() Such so-called “primary sanctions” apply to any person or entity who is designated as a “US Person”.īut in this case, SITA was a European Company providing services outside the US to customers in the Middle East and payments weren’t made in dollars. SITA is to the global airlines industry what SWIFT is to international finance.īetween 20, Europe-based SITA (it is incorporated in Belgium and headquartered in Switzerland) took on five Middle Eastern airlines as new customers, which set off alarm bells in the corridors of the US Treasury’s sanctions regulator, the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), because these Iranian and Syrian airlines had been designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). #Diamond rush secret stage 2 full#SITA… or to use is full name, the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, which provides technology and communications services to the airlines industry, ranging from enabling an airline to send messages to its pilots through to providing software to manage the lost baggage service. Look carefully next time you visit an international airport, and you should see the initials SITA on numerous Logos. It is clear that Russian Alrosa diamonds are finding their way into the global supply chain and via various mechanisms, mostly perfectly legal, and end up with a non-Russian country of origin designation. ![]() #Diamond rush secret stage 2 crack#The upcoming eighth package of sanctions will crack down on Russia’s diamond trade by trying to close some of the loopholes, and that could cause some less scrupulous traders a lot of trouble. Russian state-controlled diamond monopoly Alrosa has been sanctioned but some of its diamonds are making it on to the international market legally. ![]()
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