The diamond and jewelry industry has been in turmoil since US President Donald Trump announced he was implementing reciprocal tariffs on imports from most major countries — and especially since his August 7 statement that levies on India would jump to 50% at the end of the month.
There have been reports of companies taking various measures to counteract the upcoming charges. Those include jewelers mass-preordering supplies, Indian firms shipping excess inventory to their US offices, retailers trying to revamp supply chains quickly, and even manufacturers allegedly trying to ship illegally through Mexico and Canada to circumvent the taxes.
While industry groups are working on getting diamonds excluded from tariffs, the likelihood of their efforts panning out in time for holiday-season stocking is not strong. And since 90% of the world’s diamonds pass through India, the situation leaves jewelers in a quandary.
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