The Ministry of Economy of Armenia today hosted a discussion with representatives of country’s diamond-cutting and jewelry industries.

The main goal of the meeting was to discuss the draft decision of the Advisory Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission which envisages zeroing of the customs duty rate for a number of colored precious and semi-precious stones (with respect to raw material and ready-made stones) for a term of two years, as well as differentiation of the code of the EEU Foreign Economic Activity Commodity Nomenclature of diamond stones with mass of 0.3 karat and higher than 0.3 karat.

The expediency of application of the 0% customs duty rate for a one-year term for diamond stones with a mass of up to 0.3 karats was approved by representatives of the jewelry industry, but disapproved by several diamond-cutting companies.

Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan greeted the participants of the meeting and assured that all the proposals and viewpoints presented during the meeting would be considered and the current situation would be analyzed after studies in order to express the final position.

Summing up the discussion, the minister stated that it is necessary to create long value chains and present the Armenian brand to the world.