CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
No news is good news, the saying goes, but sometimes we need to broadcast good news widely.
The good news is that during the past CIBJO Congress in Munich, the World Jewellery Confederation has taken an important step in agreeing to align itself with the IDC position on the issue of nomenclature for “laboratory grown” diamonds.
While IDC has since long allowed for the diamond grading laboratories to choose between three terms: "laboratory-created", "laboratory-grown" and "synthetic" to describe a "synthetic" diamond, until February 2010, CIBJO had restricted the terminology to "synthetic.”.
The resolution presented by CIBJO's Diamond Commission that was approved by the CIBJO Board of Directors was worded as follows:
“In the best interest of consumer protection and industry harmonisation, CIBJO accepts the terms ‘laboratory-grown’ diamond, ‘laboratory-created’ diamond and ‘synthetic’ diamond to describe non-natural diamond. CIBJO recognises that its standards are subject to government regulations in the respective jurisdiction of CIBJO members.
In the event that the national jewellery association, which is a member of CIBJO, deems that there is no acceptable local direct translation of the English terms ‘laboratory-grown’ or ‘laboratory-created,’ then only the translation of the term ‘synthetic’ should be used.”
This is good news, as CIBJO and IDC are once again in agreement regarding the nomenclature for polished diamonds. It is important to recognize the important work that has been done by CIBJO’s Diamond Commission and by CIBJO president Gaetano Cavalieri. I hope that the two organizations can continue to work together as further progress needs to be made in this area.
As the diamond industry is engaged in a legislative effort for diamond nomenclature in Europe, it is important to have an all inclusive agreement between all the interested parties, i.e. the diamond industry, the “laboratory-created” manufacturers and the consumers, in order to create a clear, unambiguous and transparent set of nomenclature.
Recently, I have met with representatives of the laboratory grown diamond industry to discuss the initiative and need for a standard nomenclature for synthetic diamonds in Europe. While it is early days, it was clear that both sides agree that a clear and fair resolution in this realm can and will bring enormous benefit to all segments of the industry.
One of the prospective issues at hand, among others, is -- as CIBJO has already identified - , the translation of diamond nomenclature from English (which is the authoritative version) into the other languages. This subject raises new issues that we have not dealt with before. At IDC, we've just released a Chinese translation of the IDC rules. Soon a Russian translation will follow.
IDC continues to improve and strengthen its relations with other industry interest organizations, with the purpose to enhance consumer confidence. We believe that the ongoing efforts to harmonise industry guidelines and ultimately reach a European standard is a very important objective and we hope that the major industry bodies will join us in playing an active part in this process.
