The recent reduction in US import tariffs has brought a sense of relief to India’s diamond industry, easing months of uncertainty for manufacturers and exporters heavily exposed to the American market. For De Beers Group, which sources, markets and sells natural diamonds globally, the US-India trade deal is already improving sentiment, even as the industry awaits clarity on whether rough diamonds will eventually be treated at par with gold as a raw material.
“It’s very good news because it went down from 50% to 18%,” said Shweta Harit, global senior vice president of De Beers Group and CEO of Forevermark, speaking on the sidelines of the India Art Fair in Delhi. “There is buoyancy right now. A lot of customers in the US were in a wait-and-watch mode. Now it’s clear, and that itself changes sentiment.”
Plus due to geopolitical uncertainty, as gold prices go up and down, Harit think it’s an opportunity for diamonds because “the more gold prices go up, the bigger there is a chance of replacing that with diamond pricing”.
