User:Karabank/sandbox

Summary
President George W. Bush signed the Clean Diamond Trade Act on April 25, 2003, effectively implementing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) to regulate the commercial sale of diamonds. On July 29, 2003, Bush signed Executive Order 13312, which described the implementation of the Clean Diamond Trade Act. The Act requires that all diamonds imported to the United States or exported from the United States must have a Kimberley Process Certificate.

H.R. 1415 is comprised of 13 sections, the first of which names the act as the “Clean Diamond Trade Act”.

Response to the Act
Conversation around act was first brought up in response to concern over human rights issues in diamond producing countries, especially after the creation of the World Diamond Council (WDC) in 2000. (combine with Brenda's section instead? take this whole thing out?)

Implementation of the Act
According to a CRS report, the Bush administration began implementing KPCS before the passage of the House of Representatives Bill. This refers to H.R. 1584 of the 108th congress, which became public law 108-19. This bill was a reintroduction of H.R. 2722 of the 107th congress, which passed the House of Representatives in 2001 but did not pass the Senate. In 2003, Congress passed H.J.Res. 2, which contained some discourse surrounding conflict diamonds. H.Con.Res. 239 (Watson); S. 760 (Grassley), H.R. 1415 (Houghton), and H.R. 1584 (Houghton) were also passed by the 108th Congress and pertain to the Clean Diamond Trade Act.

The Act, signed under President Bush, was set to be in effect until December 31, 2006. In 2006, this was extended to 2012, and in 2009, President Obama confirmed the Waiver Certification to remain in effect through December 31, 2012. However, it does not appear that this certification remained after December 31, 2012.

However, there has been some debate over the effectiveness of the trade act, specifically the regulations set in place by KPCS. Some critics argue that the KPCS was set in place to allow consumers to buy diamonds without guilt, as opposed to effectively regulating the diamond market. It is thought that the KPCS doesn’t actually address the illegal diamond trade as well as it should. However, others argue that KPCS has made substantial gains in decreasing the illegal market trade. One issue associated with the Clean Diamond Trade Act is that the United States does not inspect rough diamonds coming in or out of the country, so many traders have nothing to deter them from illicit trade. It is suggested that the United States implement more intensive reporting and inspection of rough diamonds to the ensure the success of the trade act. The United States also lacks an agency in charge of diamond import confirmations, which allows traders to bypass the requirement of reporting the receipt of the diamond shipment within 15 days of the arrival. There is also no overseeing of the USKPA, who are responsible for issuing KP certificates, so no one supervises the company making sure that USKPA adheres to KPCS standards. The CDTA also does not directly deal with the retail diamond sector, as the Act only applies to rough diamonds as opposed to cut and polished diamonds. While some retailers take strong initiatives to avoid conflict diamonds, many do not, so the effectiveness of the Act to completely eliminate the trade of conflict diamonds is often questioned. It has also been suggested that other countries have similarly struggled with the implementation of the KPCS.