India's Commerce Minister: Lab Growns Equal Natural Diamonds
August 30, 23
(IDEX Online) - India's commerce minister has reiterated the government's support for lab grown diamond production and insisted they are "equivalent to natural diamonds".
Piyush Goyal was speaking in Jaipur last week, ahead of two days of G20 trade and investment meetings.
He said lab growns would be treated exactly like mined diamonds in free trade agreement talks with other countries.
"I want to share with you some good news," he told a press conference. "India is playing a big role in lab grown diamonds.
"A decision has been taken at a global level that lab grown diamonds are not artificial diamonds, they are not synthetic diamonds, they are equivalent to natural diamonds."
In February, Goyal's ministry approved an investment of almost $30m over the next five years to establish and fund a center for lab grown diamonds.
It follows the abolition of a five per cent import levy on the graphite seeds used to create lab grown diamonds.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a point of giving US First Lady Jill Biden a lab grown diamond (pictured) in a formal exchange of gifts at the White House in June.