U.S. and Canadian Policy

As of January 18, 2001, the President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Order 13194 to prohibit Sierra Leone from importing rough diamonds into the United States. On May 22, 2001, President Bush issued another executive order 13213 to ban import of diamonds from Liberia into the United States. Liberia was recognized as a pipeline for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone by the UN. On April 25, 2003, The United States passed the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA) which prevented fundings for Africa's civil wars by stopping diamond trade.

Canada is one of the major players in the diamond industry and has been involved in many activities to aid suffering in Africa. They played as a major supporter of the Kimberly Process and issued several laws to reduce the trade of diamonds. The Canadian Certificate was also issued and required for all shipment of diamonds through Canada. It gave permission to seize any diamonds that did not meet the requirements of the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act.