The United States will meet the January deadline to implement the Kimberley Process, said the State Department's new point man for conflict diamonds, J.D. Bindenagel. He also warned that other governments had better act quickly or they will not have access to the world's largest diamond market.
"The U.S. is dead serious about implementing Kimberley," Bindenagel told a World Diamond Council meeting at the Diamond Dealers Club recently. "We have had two years of negotiations and six or seven months since the final document was agreed to in Ottawa, and we expect to implement everything that's been agreed upon by the deadline and are not prepared to delay. We are telling everyone at our embassies to inform people that there is a Kimberley Process that is being implemented in January and they can't ignore it."
Bindenagel stressed that America's goal is to "not disrupt the industry, but to