[PASSED] REPEAL GAR #113 "The Gem Trading Accord"

[Mousebumples]

Repeal GAR #113 "The Gem Trading Accord"
Category: Repeal ~*~ Target: GAR# 113

The General Assembly:

Aware that many nations and individuals trade in gemstones and profit by that trade;

Recalling that GAR #113, "The Gem Trading Accord," puts in place a complicated regulatory scheme whereby the citizens of member nations must comply with various testing, standardization, and certification rules if they wish to trade in gems;

Summarizing GAR #113's regulatory scheme as follows:

• Two committees are established: the International Gemological Agency (IGA) and the International Gemological Laboratory (IGL);
• The IGA: (1) establishes standards of gemstone quality in cooperation with the IGL, (2) discusses gem trading issues and arbitrates disputes, (3) ensures that only WA standard quality gems are marketed as such, (4) accredits laboratories to certify gems, and (5) provides experts on gem fraud;
• All gems must be certified by an IGA accredited laboratory to be lawfully traded, trade in gems not certified by IGA accredited laboratories is outlawed, and trading in non-certified gems is criminalized;
• The IGL: (1) establishes standards of gemstone quality in cooperation with the IGA, (2) assists IGA accredited laboratories in certifying gems, and (3) assists producers of artificial gems to differentiate their products from natural gems;
• Member nations are urged to investigate gem fraud, IGA laboratories are direct to "make every effort" to protect jewelry being tested, and any repair work incurred in testing must be detailed to the owner;

Concerned that GAR #113 deceived member nations into believing that regulating economic activity and trade would somehow increase the freedoms of their people; and that, in fact, prohibiting people from freely buying and selling gems has restricted economic liberties and freedoms;

Noting that clause "c" of GAR #113 states that "the IGA will accredit laboratories within member states to test and assess the quality of gems," and that clause "h" bans all trade in gems that are not certified by an IGA accredited laboratory;

Further noting that GAR #113 does not help poor or developing nations establish local gem testing laboratories within their jurisdiction;

Concerned that some member nations lack the advanced infrastructure needed to support a local IGA-accredited gem testing laboratory, thus requiring those nations to incur great expenses to send gems abroad for testing (or to outlaw gem trade altogether);

Concluding that the laboratory testing and accredation requirements stymie free trade by making it more difficult for people in developing countries to enter the gem trade, and by making it easier for people in established nations to create monopolies;

Recognizing that undue regulation of commercial gem trading neither increases economic freedom, nor promotes the free trade of goods;

Observing that nations outside the World Assembly are free to trade gems without complying with GAR #113's onerous regulations, thus creating an international market for gems in which citizens of member nations are (at best) disadvantaged and (at worst) completely unable to participate;

Convinced that disadvantaging or preventing individuals from freely participating in international markets is not a legitimate goal for this Assembly;

Resolved that the gem trade is not so serious an area of international concern as to justify needless meddling by the World Assembly, and that individual member nations are perfectly capable of regulating trade in gems on their own;

Now, therefore, GAR #113 is hereby REPEALED.

Repeal GAR #113 "The Gem Trading Accord"
Category: Repeal ~*~ Target: GAR# 113

The Member Nations of the World Assembly:

Affirming the World Assembly's commitment to economic freedom and the free trade of goods and services across international borders;

Recognizing that many nations and individuals trade in gemstones and profit by that trade;

Concerned that GAR #113, "The Gem Trading Accord," deceived member nations into believing that putting in place onerous, highly-specific, WA-mandated barriers to commerce would somehow increase the economic freedom of their people;

Disappointed that GAR #113 has failed to bring about an improvement in the free trade of gems, and that it has in fact stymied free trade by prohibiting member nations and their citizens from freely contracting to buy and sell gems;

Observing that non-member nations, who are not bound to the regulatory scheme set up by GAR #113, are free to trade in gems as they please, creating an international market for gems that member nations cannot participate in because of GAR #113;

Convinced that preventing member nations and individuals from freely participating in international markets is not a legitimate goal for this Assembly;

Noting that clause "c" of GAR #113 states that "the IGA will accredit laboratories within member states to test and assess the quality of gems," and that clause "h" bans all trade in gems that are not certified by an IGA accredited laboratory;

Further noting that GAR #113 does not allocate any funds to help poor or developing member nations actually establish and open gem testing laboratories within their jurisdiction;

Concerned that not all member nations have the technological, economic, or scientific infrastructure to support a gem testing laboratory, much less an IGA-accreted laboratory, and consequently GAR #113 saddles those nations with an undue burden of either discontinuing trade in gems altogether or shipping gems out to be tested in another nation at great expense;

Recognizing that the laboratory testing and accredation requirements could effectively bar member nations with developing economies from entering into the gem trade at all, thus allowing more-developed nations to dominate the gem market and create monopolies on trade;

Resolved that member nations are perfectly capable on their own of regulating their own trade in gems, and that undue international meddling in the gem trade neither increases economic freedom, nor promotes the free trade of goods;

Now, therefore, the General Assembly hereby Repeals GAR #113, "The Gem Trading Accord."

[Socialist Assembly Marxists]

!

[Communist EU]

This is the next resolution in the queue and no debate!

[Losthaven]

This is the next resolution in the queue and no debate!

Through no fault of my own, I might add. This proposal was submitted to the forum and after about 6 weeks of absolutely no one posting anything whatsoever I decided to put the matter to a vote.

- Vesu Caballero-Craine; Electoral Highness, Virtuous Grand Marshal, and Fair Hand of the People of Losthaven.

[Jean Pierre Trudeau]

This is the next resolution in the queue and no debate!

Through no fault of my own, I might add. This proposal was submitted to the forum and after about 6 weeks of absolutely no one posting anything whatsoever I decided to put the matter to a vote.

- Vesu Caballero-Craine; Electoral Highness, Virtuous Grand Marshal, and Hand of the People of Losthaven.

That is a legitimate point. This thread was here.

[Communist EU]

This is the next resolution in the queue and no debate!

Through no fault of my own, I might add. This proposal was submitted to the forum and after about 6 weeks of absolutely no one posting anything whatsoever I decided to put the matter to a vote.

- Vesu Caballero-Craine; Electoral Highness, Virtuous Grand Marshal, and Fair Hand of the People of Losthaven.

Of course, I was just surprised about that. As to how we vote, we frown on luxury goods for the rich, thus, as we didn't vote for Res.113 we will neither support nor oppose this repeal.

[Sainterre]

This is the next resolution in the queue and no debate!

Through no fault of my own, I might add. This proposal was submitted to the forum and after about 6 weeks of absolutely no one posting anything whatsoever I decided to put the matter to a vote.

- Vesu Caballero-Craine; Electoral Highness, Virtuous Grand Marshal, and Fair Hand of the People of Losthaven.

OOC: You could've bumped it. I'm sure that would have had some impact on responses.

[Losthaven]

Through no fault of my own, I might add. This proposal was submitted to the forum and after about 6 weeks of absolutely no one posting anything whatsoever I decided to put the matter to a vote.

- Vesu Caballero-Craine; Electoral Highness, Virtuous Grand Marshal, and Fair Hand of the People of Losthaven.

OOC: You could've bumped it. I'm sure that would have had some impact on responses.

I suppose that's true, though I generally don't like to "bump" topics just for the sake of making people notice something. I had really hoped that somebody would comment without my needing to clamor for attention.

Also it's been in the queue for a week and no one has sought this thread (only one delegate even asked to see the drafting thread before approving it).

[Kaboomlandia]

The original only passed by 73 votes, so I wonder how that'll affect the repeal.

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: rather a shame the original resolution's author wasn't here. They are quite vehement defenders of this.

[SomethingLeftWanting]

So essentially what I'm getting from this is that you want to repeal the previous piece of legislation in order to allow more economic freedom. I mean, that sounds great in theory. But in practice, I can only imagine this repeal would result in the gem trade being overrun by corruption, monopoly, and the mass exploitation of workers due to no regulation. All of which would result in far too many cases of human rights violations by warmongers who suddenly found a new means of financing their war effort due to an unregulated black market for gems. Go watch Blood Diamond (solid movie actually). Thats what I see happening, and I can't support that. So I will vote against this repeal.

[Mundiferrum]

So essentially what I'm getting from this is that you want to repeal the previous piece of legislation in order to allow more economic freedom. I mean, that sounds great in theory. But in practice, I can only imagine this repeal would result in the gem trade being overrun by corruption, monopoly, and the mass exploitation of workers due to no regulation. All of which would result in far too many cases of human rights violations by warmongers who suddenly found a new means of financing their war effort due to an unregulated black market for gems. Go watch Blood Diamond (solid movie actually). Thats what I see happening, and I can't support that. So I will vote against this repeal.

Although there is nothing in the resolution being repealed that actually relates to the movie "Blood Diamond". The original seems to relate to the differentiating of the quality of gemstones, and also their, er, naturalness -- nothing with regards to what they fund, or how they were even acquired (except for the whole naturalness bit).

We're not really sure yet if we're voting for or against -- we issued an against vote a few minutes ago, but that was a mistelegram -- so right now, we're abstaining.

[The Dark Star Republic]

OOC: rather a shame the original resolution's author wasn't here.

OOC: Not really. Maybe for once we'll be able to actually discuss the resolution text rather than being subjected to long screeds about how we're all far too stupid to understand the Kimberley Process.

Go watch Blood Diamond (solid movie actually).

Go read Against Conflict Minerals (solid resolution actually).

[Caracasus]

While we initially thought this repeal may well reduce human rights and cause an increase in conflict gemstones, we have read the existing gem trading accord legislation and the other legislation, against conflict minerals - and see that this repeal should not lead to this. Therefore we support this repeal.

We also find it slightly unusual that gems, mostly destined to become pretty baubles for the rich and powerful, are under heavy legislation to ensure quality and authenticity, while the only clear resolution on product safety (#139 Consumer product safety) was repealed by a 2:1 vote.

[Cilef]

We would question whether there's any real substance to this repeal - it smacks heavily of ideological NatSov and little else to our ears.

[Bears Armed Mission]

"We were convinced by the arguments in the 'Gem Trading Accord' and voted for that resolution.
"We are unconvinced by the arguments in this repeal proposal, hwhich appear to depend on an assumption that people will happily buy gems of unproven quality so that testing is unnecessary, and have therefore cast our vote against it."

Ursiosina RedRose,
Commercial Attaché,
Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.

[Palakistan]

Palakistan supports this repeal for a number of reasons:
It supports free trade, and less government interference
The gem trade is not regulated just to the rich, for many middle class families can acquire gems
The regulatory labs are too expensive, and in reality, it will be cheaper to sell books on gems

[Innomina]

It is our opinion that while the intention to protect workers is a noble one, this is far too specific and narrow to earn our vote.

We would rather see general worker protections, and general fraud avoidance systems that apply to all types of goods.

We have voted to repeal on the general principal that less law text is a good thing. The more complex a legal code is, the easier it is to evade and manipulate.

We will continue to monitor the debate regardless and as always are open to changing our position based on new information.

[SomethingLeftWanting]

OOC: rather a shame the original resolution's author wasn't here.

OOC: Not really. Maybe for once we'll be able to actually discuss the resolution text rather than being subjected to long screeds about how we're all far too stupid to understand the Kimberley Process.

Go watch Blood Diamond (solid movie actually).

Go read Against Conflict Minerals (solid resolution actually).

Fair enough.

[Blaccakre]

Amongst Europeia residents, voting is currently 56-12 (82% For).

Your Regional WA Delegate, Mousebumples, has voted AGAINST this resolution.

Could someone please remind me in what possible sense Europeia deserves to label itself with the "democratic" region tag?

""We are unconvinced by the arguments in this repeal proposal, hwhich appear to depend on an assumption that people will happily buy gems of unproven quality so that testing is unnecessary, and have therefore cast our vote against it."

People may or may not "happily" buy gems of unproven quality, but it's absolute bull shit to say that prohibiting people from buying or selling gems unless they go through a WA certification process increases their economic freedom.

[Jean Pierre Trudeau]

Amongst Europeia residents, voting is currently 56-12 (82% For).

Your Regional WA Delegate, Mousebumples, has voted AGAINST this resolution.

Could someone please remind me in what possible sense Europeia deserves to label itself with the "democratic" region tag?

Their delegates vote is decided on their forums. Europeia has just as many lemming as any region.

[Kaboomlandia]

Amongst Europeia residents, voting is currently 56-12 (82% For).

Your Regional WA Delegate, Mousebumples, has voted AGAINST this resolution.

Could someone please remind me in what possible sense Europeia deserves to label itself with the "democratic" region tag?

Insight, as I work for the WA Ministry in Europeia - Mouse actually co-authored that one, though it's uncredited. Most of the 56 "yes" votes are likely people who didn't participate in the forum vote.

[Tangaliro]

Due to the high cost of processing and certifying gems,it will make the originally expensive gems more expensive,thus stopping some poorer people from getting any.And it certainly is not good for freedom of trading.Therefore,Tangaliro are going to vote for repealing the resolution.

[Bears Armed]

People may or may not "happily" buy gems of unproven quality, but it's absolute bull shit to say that prohibiting people from buying or selling gems unless they go through a WA certification process increases their economic freedom.

OOC; The argument used for the Gem Trading Accord was that because a lack of standards hits consumer confidence it reduces levels of purchasing from what they otherwise might be, so that it is the lack of standards that is the "barrier" to trade, and that introducing standards therefore promotes trade (and thus justifies the stat effects of the designated category). This argument has also been used, and accepted not only by the voters but by the Mods, in other proposals on setting standards in international trade.

[Separatist Peoples]

Due to the high cost of processing and certifying gems,it will make the originally expensive gems more expensive,thus stopping some poorer people from getting any.And it certainly is not good for freedom of trading.Therefore,Tangaliro are going to vote for repealing the resolution.

"Acc redaction labs that foster trust between dealers to weed out the fakes actually lowers the overall cost, ambassador. This will deregulate the industry and flood the market with raised prices as every dealer needs to recheck every transferred gem to ensure it's authenticity."