WFDB, Industry Bodies Withdraw From WDC Meeting

(IDEX Online News) – The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), together with seven other major diamond industry umbrella organizations, are withdrawing their participation in the two-day World Diamond Council Annual General Meeting due to start today in Antwerp, Belgium.

The WFDB, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC), the Federation of Belgian Diamond Bourses (FBDB), the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE), the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI), the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) and CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, signed and sent a joint letter to the World Diamond Council (WDC) announcing that they resolved not to "participate in this annual general meeting of the WDC" until the direction that WDC current leadership intends to take is satisfactorily explained.

The signatories expressed their disappointment at the actions the "WDC has taken during the course of the past few months and leading up to the meeting, “including but not limited to the biased survey conducted without consulting 98 percent of the industry, represented by the signatories."

While emphasizing that the signatories remain "committed to the spirit and the enforcement of the Kimberley Process Scheme" and arguing that their letter should "in no manner whatsoever be construed either to be an attempt to not comply or to avoid the Kimberley Process Scheme," they at the same time declared that "whilst the mandate of our members is clear and set out herein, we will not support any entity under the parentage of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, which has appeared to take arbitrary decisions in a lack of transparency.”

The statement added that it was “the sincerest wish of the signatories to develop and foster a fruitful and meaningful relationship with the WDC in the future.”