Ivory Coast Hoping UN Will Lift Diamond Export Ban

Reuters reported that next month, the Ivory Coast plans to pressure the United Nations to lift a ban on its diamond exports. The UN Security Council put a trade embargo on the country’s diamonds back in 2005 in an effort to stop their sale from “funding arms purchases.”

As quoted in the market news:

Last year, the Security Council said it would review the export ban in light of Ivory Coast’s progress towards compliance with the Kimberley process – a government, industry and civil society scheme aimed at certifying stones and preventing conflict diamonds entering the international market.

A plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process in Johannesburg in November ruled that Ivory Coast had fulfilled the minimum requirements for the scheme.

‘In April, we’ll be in New York with the ministers of Industry and Mines to show what efforts we’ve made and demand the lifting of this embargo which is hurting our population,’ [Fatimata Thes, the official in charge of the diamond sector at Ivory Coast’s Mining Ministry,] said.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.