On Friday, Belgium’s Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo said that his nation would never accept a ban on Russian diamond imports into the European Union because such an effort would have no effect, unless it were to be implemented globally.

As the EU is working to hash out a tenth round of sanctions to levy on Moscow in retaliation for its military action in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic nations are trying to include a ban on Russian diamonds that would bar them from the EU’s markets, along with other measures such as restrictions on cooperation with respect to nuclear energy, and blocking more banks from utilizing the SWIFT payments system.

However when asked by journalists about the proposed ban on Russian diamonds, DeCroo said, “We do not support the ban on supply of diamonds.”

DeCroo noted that the volume of Russian diamond imports to Belgium has already fallen 80% since the bloc began imposing Ukraine-related sanctions, however he pointed out that despite that, total Russian exports of the precious stones overall had not declined at all.

He said, “Steps of [this] kind should be taken only at the global level. It is necessary to create a system for tracking the origin of diamonds to make the sanctions really effective. Otherwise, diamonds will still find their way to the market.”

EU members had discussed banning all imports from Russian mining firm Alrosa during the negotiations surrounding the eighth package of sanctions. However no agreement was reached, and the miner was not included in the final list of sanctioned companies, individuals, and legal entities.

Reportedly, the miner was not included because Belgium, which hosts the world’s largest diamond trading center in Antwerp, blocked its inclusion, after warning that such a move would cost thousands of jobs in Antwerp. Belgian government officials are also reportedly afraid of losing business to gem trading hubs in India and the United Arab Emirates.

In the second quarter of 2022, Belgium imported €676 million ($734 million) worth of diamonds from Russia according to Belgium’s official state statistics. However in the three months to the end of September, it only imported €154 million ($167 million) worth of Russian diamonds.

However Alrosa did not manage to evade inclusion on the US sanctions list, despite being the world’s biggest diamond producer, and holding a 30% share of the global market.

The US sanctions only apply to Russian rough diamonds however. Washington still allows the import of Russian gems, if they have been significantly changed in other countries;