Canada on Friday announced restrictions on indirect imports of Russian diamonds weighing 1 carat and above in a co-ordinated move with other Group of Seven (G7) countries.
The latest restriction adds to a ban on Russian diamonds announced in December and will provide Canadians “additional assurance that the diamonds that they purchase are not supporting Russia’s illegal war,” the Canadian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Canada has been one of the leaders in putting limits on the Putin government’s economy since he started a harsh and illegal attack on Ukraine. This caused a lot of harm to the Ukrainian people. We and our friends have put strict punishments on the Russian government, and we will keep doing this to make Putin and his supporters responsible,” said Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly.
Russia makes the most rough diamonds in the world, and they were worth around $4. 7 billion in 2022. It also sends a lot of diamonds and diamond products to other countries. It made more than $5. 2 billion from these exports last year.
The G7 countries make up 70% of the world’s diamond market when they work together.
In 2022, Canada punished Russia’s government-owned company Alrosa after Russia attacked Ukraine.
Canada removed Russia’s most-favored nation status, which means they put a 35% tax on all items that are imported from Russia.
This caused the value of Russian imports to drop a lot, from $327,224 in 2022 to $13,440 for the first eight months of 2023, including products that will be banned.