De Beers hopes for further negotiations on agreement with ALROSA

De Beers hopes to continue a dialogue with the European Commission about a trade agreement with Russia's diamond monopolist ALROSA on exports of diamonds from Russia. A source in the Moscow office of the international diamond giant told RBC that De Beers considered the official statement of the European Commission on the case as favorable for further talks. Both De Beers and ALROSA are ready to continue a dialogue with the commission, De Beers Managing Director Gary Ralfe announced.

Yesterday, the European Commission issued a warning to the two diamond companies, saying that the agreement signed between ALROSA and De Beers in December 2001 violated EU antimonopoly law and significantly limited competition on the diamond market, since ALROSA, as the second largest diamond producer in the world, should compete with De Beers.

© &to=http://www.rbc.com' target=_blank>RBC

&to=http://www.alrosa.ru' target=_blank>ALROSA