by Britt Siminitz
Special note: This article is originally published by Britt Siminitz at agta.org. The original article: https://agta.org/agta-takes-its-case-to-cibjo/
Special thanks to AGTA for the permission to publish on Gem-Spectrum.com.
At CIBJO’s centenary Congress in Vicenza, AGTA detailed its fight against U.S. import tariffs affecting colored gemstones, Diamonds, and Pearls, highlighted Bruce Bridges’ new role advising U.S. trade officials, and issued a formal call for clearer terminology around synthetic Diamonds. Click here to watch the AGTA presentation from CIBJO.
At the 2026 Congress of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, in Vicenza, Italy, the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) brought two issues with major implications for the jewelry trade to an international audience: U.S. tariffs on imported gemstones, Diamonds, and Pearls, and synthetic gemstone terminology.
CIBJO represents jewelry, gemstone, and precious metals trade organizations and companies around the world, and plays a central role in developing international industry standards and nomenclature. That made its centenary Congress a natural venue for AGTA to discuss both issues—and the work it has been doing on them in Washington.
AGTA President Bruce Bridges and CEO John W. Ford, Sr. took the stage during a session on geopolitics and the jewelry industry to detail the association’s efforts to secure tariff relief for the trade, explain why AGTA believes the industry needs a stronger voice as U.S. trade policy is being shaped, and make a formal statement on synthetic Diamond terminology.
“CIBJO was the right place because these are international issues,” Bridges says. “Our industry is global by nature. The gemstones and jewelry sold in the United States move through supply chains that cross multiple countries, so decisions made in Washington can have consequences throughout the entire international trade.”
The presentation traced AGTA’s response to tariffs imposed beginning in April 2025, which disrupted a trade that had long relied on duty-free imports of loose colored gemstones, Diamonds, and Pearls into the United States. Bridges emphasized a basic challenge for the colored gemstone industry: The vast majority of the materials AGTA members work with are not geologically available in the United States, making imports essential to the business. AGTA responded by building a full-time Washington operation and pursuing what Ford called an “all-of-government approach,” engaging the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as well as lawmakers in both chambers of Congress. Ford told the CIBJO audience that AGTA now works with a team of three lobbyists, a trade attorney, a policy adviser, and a trade specialist in Washington.
The effort has required no small amount of face time. Bridges said that he and Ford have spent roughly 43 days in Washington across 14 trips since the tariff issue began, meeting with more than 32 members of the House, more than six senators, and officials from USTR, the White House, Commerce, Treasury, and other agencies.
A central part of the strategy has been explaining how tariffs move through an industry dominated not only by major jewelry companies, but also by independent dealers, jewelers, manufacturers, and other small and midsize businesses.
“What I wanted people to understand is that AGTA is actively representing our members and our industry with policymakers,” Ford says. “We aren’t simply reacting after decisions have been made.”
That outreach has also drawn support from elected officials. A congressional letter presented during the CIBJO session was signed by Reps. Randy Weber, Ronny Jackson, Andy Barr, Trent Kelly, Mike Simpson, David Rouzer, Ron Estes, Darrell Issa, and Mike Bost. AGTA says additional support and correspondence have come from Sens. Ted Cruz, Bill Cassidy, and Todd Young, as well as Reps. Beth Van Duyne, Austin Scott, Rich McCormick, and Jim Jordan.
AGTA’s presentation also highlighted a July 29 meeting in which association representatives joined Congressman Randy Weber in meeting with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Goettman to discuss the status of AGTA source countries’ bilateral trade agreements with the United States.
A Seat At The Table
Perhaps the clearest evidence of AGTA’s growing involvement in Washington came with Bridges’ appointment to a four-year term on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa.
The committee provides stakeholder advice to USTR on U.S. trade and development policy involving sub-Saharan Africa. For an industry deeply dependent on African gemstone production, Ford says the appointment gives the trade an important new avenue for input.
“I think it’s extremely significant because it gives our industry a seat at a table where decisions affecting international trade are being discussed,” Ford says.
Bridges, whose family has worked in mining and gemstones in Africa for generations, told the CIBJO audience that the appointment gives the jewelry trade what he described as an “inside voice” in discussions around trade policy.
“For AGTA, that means we have another avenue to explain how trade policy actually plays out at the mine, dealer, manufacturer and retailer levels,” Ford says.
AGTA Takes A Stand On “Synthetic”
Tariffs weren’t the only U.S. policy issue AGTA brought to CIBJO.
At the conclusion of the association’s presentation, Ford made a formal statement calling on the Federal Trade Commission to reconsider its 2018 Jewelry Guides revisions regarding synthetic Diamonds.
In 2018, the FTC removed the word “natural” from its definition of Diamond and allowed terms including “laboratory-grown” and “laboratory-created” to communicate that a Diamond is not mined. AGTA now wants the agency to revisit that framework during its next review of the Jewelry Guides.
“The timing is important because the conversation has changed considerably since 2018,” Ford says. “Since then, the synthetic diamond market has grown dramatically and we now have years of real-world experience with how those terms are being used and understood.”
AGTA’s position centers on disclosure. The association argues that “synthetic” provides a clearer distinction between naturally occurring and manufactured gemstone products and says it will continue communicating with the FTC while educating members of Congress on the issue.
The international setting was particularly timely: Following the 2026 CIBJO Congress, CIBJO’s Board of Directors approved a recommendation that its Blue Books be revised so that “synthetic” is the sole descriptor for created products with the same chemical composition, physical properties, and structure as their natural counterparts, while acknowledging that national laws and regulations take precedence where applicable.
“For AGTA, the fundamental issue is clear disclosure,” Bridges says. “A synthetic ruby is a synthetic ruby, a synthetic sapphire is a synthetic sapphire, and we believe consumers deserve the same clarity when it comes to diamonds.”
Tariffs and nomenclature may seem like unrelated battles, but Bridges sees the same responsibility behind both. “The common thread is advocacy,” he says. “AGTA needs to be in the room.”
Whether the issue is the cost of bringing gemstones into the United States or the terminology used to describe what consumers are buying, Bridges says the goal is to make sure policymakers hear directly from the industry before decisions are made.
“Not waiting for government policy to happen to our industry,” he says, “but making sure our industry has a meaningful voice while that policy is being shaped.”
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