www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

chinadaily.com.cn
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Diamond center tries to reassert its influence

Updated: 2012-11-18 07:59
By John Tagliabue ( The New York Times)

ANTWERP, Belgium - Though this Belgian port has had a love affair with diamonds for centuries, of late it seems to be losing some of its passion. For years, much of the lucrative but labor-intensive business of cutting and polishing stones has been drifting to low-wage centers in the developing world, like Mumbai, Dubai and Shanghai.

More ominously, in recent years, diamond traders have been accused of violations including tax fraud, money laundering and cheating on customs payments when buying and selling stones.

Diamond center tries to reassert its influence

Recognizing the threat, the World Diamond Center, a trade-promotion group, outlined plans to draw business back to Antwerp by simplifying and accelerating trading via online systems. That, the industry hopes, will win back some of the polishing business lost to Asian countries with new technology, like fully automated diamond polishers, and generally burnish the industry image.

"This is our strength," said Ari Epstein, 36, a lawyer who is chief executive of the World Diamond Center and the son of a diamond trader. "We have the critical mass so that every diamond finds a buyer and seller."

The market here employs 8,000 people and creates work indirectly for 26,000 others. Last year, turnover in the local diamond business amounted to $56 billion, Mr. Epstein said, its best year ever.

Hoveniersstraat, or Gardner's Street, leads through the heart of the market, where almost 85 percent of the world's uncut diamonds are still traded.

"I come here once a month," said Sheh Kamliss, a trader in his 30s, who travels from India to buy uncut stones and sell polished diamonds. "This is the international market."

Hoveniersstraat is liberally sprinkled with Orthodox Jewish traders, many of them Hasidim.

But their once dominant presence has been squeezed. Now people from about 70 nations, including Indians, Israelis, Lebanese, Russians and Chinese, are there too. In the Jewish quarter, for instance, Patel's Cash & Carry recently installed itself next to Moszkowitz, the butcher. Some say this globalization has opened the door to abuse.

Diamond center tries to reassert its influence

Omega Diamonds came under investigation and its executives fled Belgium when an employee revealed in 2006 how Omega had traded diamonds out of Africa for years, avoiding taxes by transacting deals through Dubai, Tel Aviv and Geneva, then moving the profits back to Belgium.

"Because of global changes, the trade routes have changed," said David Renous, 47, the whistle blower. "New hubs, like Dubai, the Singapore of the Middle East, sometimes close their eyes to criminality."

In 2005, an Antwerp-based courier business, Monstrey Worldwide Services, was accused of misusing customs-free zones in places like Geneva to smuggle stones. In 2009, investigations into possible tax evasion were begun regarding hundreds of diamond dealers, including many in Antwerp, named on lists of account holders at the Swiss branch of the British HSBC bank.

Danny Meylemans, 39, a fourth-generation diamond polisher, battles on the front most vulnerable to foreign encroachment. "In Antwerp we have a few hundred polishers," he said. "In the late '60s there were over 20,000."

The New York Times

 
 
...
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲一区二区三区不卡在线播放 | 欧美做爱毛片 | 欧美在线观看一区二区 | 日韩高清一级 | 一区二区三区精品国产欧美 | 国产成人a一区二区 | 亚洲成人一区二区 | 99久久精品免费看国产免费软件 | 俄罗斯极品美女毛片免费播放 | 成人18免费观看的软件 | 久久99爱视频| 国产网红自拍 | 三级国产精品一区二区 | 亚洲欧美色视频 | 欧美亚洲国产激情一区二区 | 精品国产综合区久久久久久 | 国内精品久久影院 | 最新国产大片高清视频 | 亚洲成人天堂 | 亚洲国产精品线播放 | 呦视频在线一区二区三区 | 欧美三级成人观看 | 久视频免费精品6 | 精品视频在线一区 | 久久亚洲精品中文字幕三区 | gogo999亚洲肉体艺术大胆 | 黄色a三级三级三级免费看 黄色a网 | 亚洲福利视频精选在线视频 | 欧美一区二区三区久久久人妖 | 极品精品国产超清自在线观看 | 国内精品伊人久久久久妇 | 欧美在线成人午夜网站 | 美女被爆免费视频软件 | 国产专区在线 | 欧美一区二区在线播放 | 欧美一区二区视频在线观看 | 久久性精品 | 成人a大片高清在线观看 | 一级aaa级毛片午夜在线播放 | 99久免费精品视频在线观看2 | 香港黄页亚洲一级 |