Will the new Trump Administration stop the efforts of the United States to protect the practices supporting the responsible exploitation of raw materials? Rob Bates, a journalist with quite a large following in the USA, does not hide a certain pessimism on such topics. “With the new leadership at the State Department – he has recently written – it still remains to be seen if the United States will continue to legally commit to protect the Kimberley Process and similar issues”. In fact, the lead of the State Department will pass to Rex Tillerson, former General Manager of Exxon Mobil. Ashley Orbach, Special Advisor for the last three years on conflict diamonds, has then announced that he will leave his mandate just when many doubts have been raised on the continuation of the same lines as the Dodd Frank Act. In keeping the guard up on terrorism, the new administration seems to look more to its boundaries than to be interested in the abuses against the communities that settled in the remotest mining areas the stones for jewellery come from.
Gem News by Trasparenze News, published on Rivista Italiana di Gemmologia #1, May 2017.
