108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1584
AN ACT
To implement effective measures to stop trade in
conflict diamonds, and for other purposes.
108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1584
AN ACT
To implement effective measures to stop trade in conflict
diamonds, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Clean Diamond Trade
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Funds derived from the sale of rough dia-
monds are being used by rebels and state actors to
finance military activities, overthrow legitimate gov-
ernments, subvert international efforts to promote
peace and stability, and commit horrifying atrocities
against unarmed civilians. During the past decade,
more than 6,500,000 people from Sierra Leone, An-
gola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
have been driven from their homes by wars waged
in large part for control of diamond mining areas.
A million of these are refugees eking out a miserable
existence in neighboring countries, and tens of thou-
sands have fled to the United States. Approximately
3,700,000 people have died during these wars.
(2) The countries caught in this fighting are
home to nearly 70,000,000 people whose societies
have been torn apart not only by fighting but also
by terrible human rights violations.
(3) Human rights and humanitarian advocates,
the diamond trade as represented by the World Dia-
mond Council, and the United States Government
have been working to block the trade in conflict dia-
monds. Their efforts have helped to build a con-
sensus that action is urgently needed to end the
trade in conflict diamonds.
(4) The United Nations Security Council has
acted at various times under chapter VII of the
Charter of the United Nations to address threats to
international peace and security posed by conflicts
linked to diamonds. Through these actions, it has
prohibited all states from exporting weapons to cer-
tain countries affected by such conflicts. It has fur-
ther required all states to prohibit the direct and in-
direct import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone
unless the diamonds are controlled under specified
certificate of origin regimes and to prohibit abso-
lutely the direct and indirect import of rough dia-
monds from Liberia.
(5) In response, the United States implemented
sanctions restricting the importation of rough dia-
monds from Sierra Leone to those diamonds accom-
panied by specified certificates of origin and fully
prohibiting the importation of rough diamonds from
Liberia. The United States is now taking further ac-
tion against trade in conflict diamonds.
(6) Without effective action to eliminate trade
in conflict diamonds, the trade in legitimate dia-
monds faces the threat of a consumer backlash that
could damage the economies of countries not in-
volved in the trade in conflict diamonds and penalize
members of the legitimate trade and the people they
employ. To prevent that, South Africa and more
than 30 other countries are involved in working,
through the ‘‘Kimberley Process’’, toward devising a
solution to this problem. As the consumer of a ma-
jority of the world’s supply of diamonds, the United
States has an obligation to help sever the link be-
tween diamonds and conflict and press for imple-
mentation of an effective solution.
(7) Failure to curtail the trade in conflict dia-
monds or to differentiate between the trade in con-
flict diamonds and the trade in legitimate diamonds
could have a severe negative impact on the legiti-
mate diamond trade in countries such as Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Tanzania.
(8) Initiatives of the United States seek to re-
solve the regional conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa
which facilitate the trade in conflict diamonds.
(9) The Interlaken Declaration on the Kim-
berley Process Certification Scheme for Rough Dia-
monds of November 5, 2002, states that Partici-
pants will ensure that measures taken to implement
the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for
Rough Diamonds will be consistent with inter-
national trade rules.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means the Committee on Ways and Means
and the Committee on International Relations of the
House of Representatives, and the Committee on Fi-
nance and the Committee on Foreign Relations of
the Senate.
(2) CONTROLLED
THROUGH
THE
KIMBERLEY
PROCESS CERTIFICATION SCHEME.—An importation
or exportation of rough diamonds is ‘‘controlled
through 
the 
Kimberley 
Process 
Certification
Scheme’’ if it is an importation from the territory of
a Participant or exportation to the territory of a
Participant of rough diamonds that is—
(A) carried out in accordance with the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, as set
forth in regulations promulgated by the Presi-
dent; or
(B) controlled under a system determined
by the President to meet substantially the
standards, practices, and procedures of the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
(3) EXPORTING
AUTHORITY.—The term ‘‘ex-
porting authority’’ means 1 or more entities des-
ignated by a Participant from whose territory a
shipment of rough diamonds is being exported as
having the authority to validate the Kimberley Proc-
ess Certificate.
(4) IMPORTING
AUTHORITY.—The term ‘‘im-
porting authority’’ means 1 or more entities des-
ignated by a Participant into whose territory a ship-
ment of rough diamonds is imported as having the
authority to enforce the laws and regulations of the
Participant 
regulating 
imports, 
including 
the
verification of the Kimberley Process Certificate ac-
companying the shipment.
(5) KIMBERLEY
PROCESS
CERTIFICATE.—The
term ‘‘Kimberley Process Certificate’’ means a for-
gery resistant document of a Participant that dem-
onstrates that an importation or exportation of
rough diamonds has been controlled through the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and con-
tains the minimum elements set forth in Annex I to
the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
(6) 
KIMBERLEY
PROCESS
CERTIFICATION
SCHEME.—The term ‘‘Kimberley Process Certifi-
cation Scheme’ means those standards, practices,
and procedures of the international certification
scheme for rough diamonds presented in the docu-
ment entitled ‘‘Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme’’ referred to in the Interlaken Declaration
on the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for
Rough Diamonds of November 5, 2002.
(7) PARTICIPANT.—The term ‘‘Participant’’
means a state, customs territory, or regional eco-
nomic integration organization identified by the Sec-
retary of State.
(8) PERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means an in-
dividual or entity.
(9) ROUGH DIAMOND.—The term ‘‘rough dia-
mond’’ means any diamond that is unworked or sim-
ply sawn, cleaved, or bruted and classifiable under
subheading 7102.10, 7102.21, or 7102.31 of the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
(10) UNITED
STATES.—The term ‘‘United
States’’, when used in the geographic sense, means
the several States, the District of Columbia, and any
commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United
States.
(11) UNITED
STATES
PERSON.—The term
‘‘United States person’’ means—
(A) any United States citizen or any alien
admitted for permanent residence into the
United States;
(B) any entity organized under the laws of
the United States or any jurisdiction within the
United States (including its foreign branches);
and
(C) any person in the United States.
SEC. 4. MEASURES FOR THE IMPORTATION AND EXPOR-
TATION OF ROUGH DIAMONDS.
(a) PROHIBITION.—The President shall prohibit the
importation into, or exportation from, the United States
of any rough diamond, from whatever source, that has not
been controlled through the Kimberley Process Certifi-
cation Scheme.
(b) WAIVER.—The President may waive the require-
ments set forth in subsection (a) with respect to a par-
ticular country for periods of not more than 1 year each,
if, with respect to each such waiver—
(1) the President determines and reports to the
appropriate congressional committees that such
country is taking effective steps to implement the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme; or
(2) the President determines that the waiver is
in the national interests of the United States, and
reports such determination to the appropriate con-
gressional committees, together with the reasons
therefor.
SEC. 5. REGULATORY AND OTHER AUTHORITY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The President is authorized to
and shall as necessary issue such proclamations, regula-
tions, licenses, and orders, and conduct such investiga-
tions, as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
(b) RECORDKEEPING.—Any United States person
seeking to export from or import into the United States
any rough diamonds shall keep a full record of, in the form
of reports or otherwise, complete information relating to
any act or transaction to which any prohibition imposed
under section 4(a) applies. The President may require
such person to furnish such information under oath, in-
cluding the production of books of account, records, con-
tracts, letters, memoranda, or other papers, in the custody
or control of such person.
(c) OVERSIGHT.—The President shall require the ap-
propriate Government agency to conduct annual reviews
of the standards, practices, and procedures of any entity