Tools › Guides › Gems & jewellery (HS 71)
Exporting gems and jewellery — Kimberley, hallmarking and provenance
Gems and jewellery move at very high value per kilogram, which makes documentation and provenance the whole game. Much of the compliance is not customs at all — it is about where the stones came from.
Classification runs across chapter 71
- 7102 — diamonds, split between rough and worked, and whether industrial or non-industrial. Rough versus polished is a different line, not a description.
- 7103–7104 — other precious and semi-precious stones, natural and synthetic.
- 7113 — articles of jewellery of precious metal. A piece of jewellery is classified as jewellery, not by the stones set in it; the stones do not drive the heading.
Rough diamonds: the Kimberley Process certificate
Rough diamond shipments must travel under the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme: a government-issued certificate accompanies each shipment, and the goods must be sealed and an unbroken chain of certificates maintained from producer to import. This is a hard legal requirement in participating countries, not a voluntary scheme.
The failure mode is administrative: a shipment that lacks the certificate for a leg of its journey cannot legally move. Maintain the certificate chain as a physical artefact — a scanned file is not the certificate.
Provenance now goes beyond Kimberley
- Sanctions-based measures on certain origin diamonds have been introduced in some markets and are evolving. A stone that is legal to trade may still have to demonstrate that it is not of a prohibited origin, with documentary evidence of the supply chain.
- Responsible-sourcing frameworks required by major buyers are commercial requirements — they do not replace the legal certificate, and the legal certificate does not satisfy the buyer's framework. Evidence both, separately.
- Keep stone-level records: parcel identity, invoice trail, and any warranty about origin or treatment (for example, treatment disclosure for coloured stones).
Indian requirements and documents
- Hallmarking of gold jewellery under the national standards regime applies in the domestic market and to buyers who require it; check the current rules for the specific product and destination.
- Documents: commercial invoice with full stone and metal description, packing list, transport document, certificate of origin, Kimberley certificate for rough diamonds, and any buyer-scheme or sanctions documentation.
- Insurance and secure logistics are part of the cost structure — value density changes the economics of freight in a way that general cost guides do not capture.
Use the tools
- HSN 7113 — articles of jewellery
- HSN 7102 — diamonds
- Market research — gems and jewellery import markets
- The export document set
Sources & further reading
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme GJEPC — Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council Bureau of Indian Standards
These guides summarise public material from the bodies named above. They are general information, not advice on a specific shipment, and they are not a substitute for a ruling from your customs authority or a qualified customs broker / consultant.
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- How to read trade data without fooling yourself
- How to estimate landed cost — FOB, CIF, duty and delivered
- The export document set: what is statutory and what is not
- Exporting to the UAE — classification, duty and documentation
- Exporting to the USA — HTS classification, entry and product gatekeepers
- Exporting to the EU — import VAT, CE marking, EUDR and CBAM
- Exporting to the UK — the UK Global Tariff, VAT and UKCA marking
- Exporting to Saudi Arabia — SABER, SFDA and GCC duty
- Exporting to Japan — CEPA preference, MHLW rules and residue limits
- Exporting to Australia — biosecurity, ECTA preference and FSANZ
- Exporting to the Netherlands — the EU gateway and how goods really enter
- Exporting to China — GACC registration, CCC marking and food rules
- Exporting to Germany — packaging law (LUCID), VAT and EU rules
- Exporting to Canada — bilingual labelling, CFIA and CBSA
- Exporting to Kenya — PVoC certification and KEBS standards
- Exporting to Nigeria — SONCAP, NAFDAC and Form M
- Exporting to Vietnam — AIFTA preference, Form AI and labelling
- Exporting to Indonesia — halal certification, SNI and import licensing
- Exporting to Turkey — the EU customs union, TAREKS and surveillance
- Exporting to South Africa — NRCS letters of authority and SACU duty
- Exporting to Brazil — RADAR, ANVISA, INMETRO and stacked taxes
- Exporting to Malaysia — AIFTA preference, JAKIM halal and SIRIM
- Exporting to the Philippines — AIFTA, FDA registration and ICC clearance
- Exporting to Sri Lanka — the ISFTA preference and its value-addition rule
- Exporting to Egypt — GOEIC factory registration and Arabic labelling
- Exporting to Chile — the PTA, SEC certification and warning labels
- Exporting to Tanzania — EAC duty, TBS conformity and TFDA
- Exporting to Mexico — NOM standards, the importers' registry and warning labels
- Exporting to Israel — the standard mark, Hebrew labelling and kosher
- Exporting to Bangladesh — SAFTA, BSTI and the letter-of-credit requirement
- Exporting to South Korea — CEPA, MFDS facility registration and the KC mark
- Exporting to Kuwait — KUCAS conformity and PAFN food rules
- Exporting to Thailand — AIFTA, TISI standards and Thai FDA registration
- Exporting to Switzerland — not the EU: customs, VAT and the EFTA agreement
- Exporting to Nepal — the India–Nepal treaty, not just SAFTA
- Exporting to Oman — conformity, food controls and logistics
- Exporting to Qatar — conformity, food controls and a high-income market
- Exporting to New Zealand — biosecurity, shared food standards and no agreement
- Exporting to Colombia — VUCE, INVIMA and ICA approvals
- Exporting to Kazakhstan — the EAEU customs union and EAC certification
- Exporting to Cambodia — AIFTA, import licensing and CamControl
- Exporting Indian tea (HS 0902) — grades, residues and market data
- Exporting basmati rice (HS 1006) — policy, residues and documents
- Exporting Indian spices (HS 0910) — curcumin, ETO and residues
- Exporting cotton yarn and textiles (HS 5205) — counts and traceability
- Exporting iron and steel articles — CBAM and embedded emissions
- Exporting frozen shrimp and seafood (HS 0306) — listing and residues
- Exporting Indian coffee (HS 0901) — grades, OTA and EUDR
- Exporting leather and leather goods — REACH, EUDR and buyer audits
- Exporting fresh fruit (HS 08) — quarantine treatments and residues
- Exporting pharmaceuticals (HS 3004) — registration, GMP and the CPC
- Exporting cashew (HS 0801) — origin, out-turn and residues
- Exporting ayurveda and herbal products (HS 1211) — novel food and heavy metals
- Exporting auto components (HS 8708) — IATF, homologation and origin
- Exporting jute and coir — anti-dumping, LDC competition and biosecurity
- Exporting groundnut (HS 1202) — aflatoxin and the EU health certificate
- Exporting buffalo meat (HS 0202) — plant approval and market access
- Exporting unmanufactured tobacco (HS 2401) — auctions, grades and TPD
- Exporting organic food — NPOP equivalence, and where it stops
- Exporting dairy products (HS 0402) — residue monitoring and market access
- Exporting onion (HS 0703) — the most policy-volatile export India has
- Exporting honey (HS 0409) — residues, the national plan and origin labelling
- Exporting cut flowers (HS 0603) — cold chain, auctions and plant health