The Expanding Competence Of Kimberley Process And Its Conformance To The WTO Rules

From the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme(KPCS)was launched on November,2002,54 countries and districts have already been participated in this international agreement regarding controlling and tracing the whole pipeline of rough diamond trading.KPCS requests participating states legislating for banning any rough diamonds trading with states either out of KPSC system or in armed conflict and war.In year of 2009,human right problem burst off in Zimbabwe.In Marange mining zone,government and army expelled inhabitants,forced local people to work in mines and even smuggled diamonds as an collective behavior,which put KPCS in front of the new challenge: if KPSC will expands the definition of“conflict diamonds”from “diamonds from conflict zones”to “diamonds with human right flaws”or not.Section ?(C)of KPCS states trading limitation of rough diamonds.This article aims at analyzing relationship between this kind of trading limitation and relevant rules of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(hereafter GATT)to prove that when participants of Kimberley Process abandons trading rough diamond with human right flaws,exceptional clauses as GATT article 20.and article 21.could be invoked to prove the compliance of KPSC and WTO rules.Before 2009,there was opinions that GATT article 21.might be invoked as exceptional clause.Yet if KPSC expands to control diamonds with human right flaws,article 20.will be the most important essence.In the end I wish all the proof and discussion above will help the diamond industry to eliminate rough diamonds with human right problems from the market and be more confident that KPSC expanding is a must path leading to a better construction of international diamond trading.