The World Diamond Council (WDC) is asking stakeholders to review its System of Warranties (SoW) Toolkit, following its unanimous adoption as a working draft by the WDC board of directors and members.

Stakeholders have until March 31 to submit comments to WDC.

The SoW toolkit was designed to assist members of the diamond trade to comply with the revised WDC SoW that was approved in 2018 and is scheduled to be phased in over a five-year period.

The SoW was first introduced in 2002 as an industry self-regulation system. It requires buyers and sellers of diamonds to pass on a warranty statement on business-to-business invoices and memos each time diamonds change hands, which assures the next buyer that they originated from sources that are compliant with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).

Unlike the certification scheme that only covers the trade in rough diamonds, the SoW also applies to the trade of polished diamonds and jewellery that is set with diamonds.

WDC explains that the SoW Toolkit being reviewed is a self-assessment questionnaire, where the questions that need to be answered depend upon the business model of the respondent and number of employees in the firm. This flexibility will ensure that respondents need to react to questions that are relevant to their businesses.

The SoW self-assessment must be completed by every company that includes the revised SoW statement on their invoices, and it will need to be done annually.

Respondents will need to fill out several or all of the following sections: the KPCS Section, intended for companies who buy or sell rough diamonds; the SoW Section, for all companies; the compliance section, for all companies, although firms with more than 100 employees will be required to respond to more questions than their smaller counterparts; and a section for companies who source rough from artisanal mining operations.

“The stakeholder review is the final stage in the rollout of the new SoW Toolkit, and is a most critical one.

“Our goal is to strengthen the SoW, and in so doing reinforce the integrity of the diamond distribution chain. For this we are seeking the perspective of a range of experts. I call on our colleagues to contribute,” says WDC president Stephane Fischler.