Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
August 30, 2010
I've read that Panama's president has announced that a new legislation, making the country's diamond market a free trade market, along with joining the Kimberly process. Is this a big step for diamond mining in Latin America (I don't know what is the diamond mining potential in Panama)? Are other countries in the region expected to follow Panama and making Latin America's diamond market much more liberal and permissive towards foreign investment? What made Panama's president change the country's diamond market's guidelines?
September 1, 2010
Not long ago, on the 19th of Oct 2009 to be precise, Panama's Diamond Bourse (PDE) has announces that Panama's president Ricardo Martinelli is planning to announce a new legislation, making the PDE a free trading zone. As you wrote, Panama is also planning to take further steps in the direction of joining the Kimberly Process. The PDE are very thrilled as it seems that Panama is about to become the first independent diamond market in Latin America. Experts take Martinelli's announcement very seriously and claim that a long process of preparations and the constitution of new regulations has taken place prior to his announcement.
Some critics are rather skeptic, though, and suggest that making Panama a regional diamond center could promote a negative process in which it would become a location of money laundering of illegal diamonds which are mined throughout South America.
However, the PDE insists that the result will be 100% positive, establishing a diamond trading center which would promote fair trade and would rise diamond trading standards in Latin America. It is doubtful that the new Panama diamond market will manage to adopt the standards of the diamond markets in New York, Antwerp or Tel Aviv right away, but the plan is indeed to deal only with diamonds that posses a Kimberly certificate. Panama's growing middle class could assist maintaining a lively and succesful market. Erez Ekerman, CEO of Panama's diamond exchange center claims that a 'free market' doesn't mean an unsupervised market. The term 'free' is descriptive of the diamonds' taxes and custom regulations, while diamonds will be examined carefully, assuring that they are being traded legtimately. Panama won't promote the illegal diamond market by no means.
If Panama would indeed become a member of the Kimberly Process than such tragets could be fulfilled more easily. Until this moment arrives, Panama's diamond exchange market couldn't become the new oasis of Latin America's diamond institute, as the country's diamond producers desire.
