WFDB welcomes GIA’s changes to reports for lab-grown diamonds

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has “welcomed” the changes by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to its reports for lab-grown diamonds.

The GIA said its reports will be changed to come into line with revisions to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Jewelry Guides announced last year. As of 1 July, the GIA will discontinue the ‘GIA Synthetic Diamond Grading Report’ and introduce, instead, the ‘GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report’.

WFDB president Ernie Blom said he was “pleased” that although the reports will include the standard GIA color, clarity and cut grading scales for reference purposes, they will continue to use Colorless, Near Colorless, Faint, Very Faint and Faint to report the color grades for laboratory-grown diamonds.

He added: “In addition, we are happy to see that the reports will continue to use Flawless, Internally Flawless, Very Very Slightly Included, Very Slightly Included, Slightly Included and Included to report clarity grades, rather than VVS1 and VVS2; VS1 and VS2; SI1 and SI2; and I1, I2 and I3 used to report the clarity grades for diamonds.

“The global diamond industry made its views known to the GIA during its decision making process, and I am pleased that this very important global institution gave weight to the industry’s concerns. I call on the other labs to follow suit to ensure that their reports are clearly differentiated for lab-grown stones because this is a vital issue for the diamond trade.”