Vol. 141, No. 9 — May 2, 2007

Registration
SOR/2007-80 April 20, 2007

EXPORT AND IMPORT OF ROUGH DIAMONDS ACT

Regulations Amending the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Regulations

The Minister of Natural Resources, pursuant to paragraph 35(b) of the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act (see footnote a), hereby makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Regulations.

Ottawa, April 19, 2007

Gary Lunn
Minister of Natural Resources

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE EXPORT
AND IMPORT OF ROUGH DIAMONDS
REGULATIONS

AMENDMENT

1. Section 6 of the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Regulations (see footnote 1) is replaced by the following:

6. Subject to section 12 of the Act, a Canadian Certificate is valid until 24:00 Greenwich mean time of the day that is 60 days after the date of issue.

COMING INTO FORCE

2. These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

REGULATORY IMPACT
ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Description

In October 2004 at the Gatineau Plenary, an administrative decision was adopted to limit the validity period of Kimberley Process Certificates to 60 days. An amendment to section 6 of the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Regulations is required to reduce the validity of Canada's Kimberley Process Certificates from 90 to 60 days.

A Kimberley Process Certificate is a forgery resistant document with a particular format which identifies a shipment of rough diamonds as being in compliance with the requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

Benefits and costs

Reducing the validity period will improve the comparability of statistics submitted by Kimberley Process Participants and will limit the potential for misuse of issued Kimberley Process Certificates.

There are no costs associated with this change, neither for Canadian industry, which requires the certificates to export their product, nor for the federal government, which issues the certificates.

The change to the validity period will not require changes in the current practices of the Canadian industry. In the three years since implementation of the certification scheme, most shipments of rough diamonds took place within one week of issuance of Kimberley Process Certificates and all exports of rough diamonds have been within 60 days.

Consultation

In 2004, at the Plenary in Gatineau, Quebec, participants of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme including 42 governments and one regional economic integration organization (the European Community), adopted a consensus decision establishing the maximum period for the validity of Kimberley Process Certificates at 60 days from the date of issuance. Industry and civil society representatives at that meeting had no objections to this change.

Compliance and enforcement

There will be no changes to compliance and enforcement as a result of this amendment.

Contact

Teresa Trevino
Kimberley Process Office
Programs Branch
Minerals and Metals Sector
Natural Resources Canada
580 Booth St, 9th floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0E4
Telephone: 613-992-7444
Fax: 613-992-8581

Footnote a

S.C. 2002, c. 25

Footnote 1

SOR/2003-15

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