Gem traders to fight Burma ban

The world's gemstone traders have decided to fight back against a new US law banning the sale of Burmese rubies and sapphires.

The new law, which came into effect this week, makes it illegal for American gem dealers to buy Burmese products - even if the stones have been cut, polished and re-traded from a third country.

Previously the law banned gems bought directly from Burma but not those traded via other countries.

Dave Mathieson from Human Rights Watch told Radio Australia that closing the legal loophole was a small but important step.

"In terms of monetary value it's probably not huge, but in terms of symbolic value and the fact that these counter-measures are in place and being tightened up, it is important because it sends a signal to the Burmese military government and their business associates that abusive production of gems and other precious metals won't be accepted into the United States," he said.

But the International Coloured Gemstone Association, which represents 600 traders in 40 countries, describes the law as "well-meaning" but "misguided".

"The huge concern I have and many other people in the industry [have] is that this was targeted to help the people of Burma and in fact there was little or no collateral damage study undertaken and they've actually forgotten about the very people they were trying to help," said Andrew Cody, the association's president.

The production of opium poppies in Burma has decreased over the last decade, but some farmers are choosing to go back to the lucrative drug trade.

However, Dave Mathieson from Human Rights Watch disagrees with the gem traders' argument - that those at the bottom of the industry will be hardest hit.

"That's really not the case, because a lot of the miners around Mogok and other places inside Burma get paid appallingly anyway, so they never see any of the top end profits of the trade," he said.

"And the small traders, the ones that actually do mine and bring some of the stones out, those guys don't actually make that much money and these measures don't affect their low level sales."

Since the 1960s, Burma has held annual gem sales and at the trade fair earlier this month, more two thousand dealers spent an estimated $US175 million on Burmese gems.

Human rights groups say this money funds Burma's repressive military, but Andrew Cody says only around 5 per cent of the profits from gemstones filters back to the Burmese regime.

You can find the full story at the Connect Asia website: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia