A Kazakh business lobbyist said Tuesday that Russian companies sell goods in Kazakhstan at dumping prices, taking advantage of their customs union.
"In the past several months, we experienced very serious dumping from Russian companies," said Nikolai Radostovets, executive director of the Association of Kazakhstan's Mining and Metallurgical Companies.
These companies' prices in Kazakhstan are 20 percent to 40 percent lower than those they charge in Russia, he said in a video link from Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, posted on RIA-Novosti's website.
He didn't specify the companies or the goods.
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus set up a customs union in 2010 and a common market in January 2012 to encourage mutual trade.
Radostovets said his association wants the customs union to establish an antitrust watchdog to investigate suspected cases of dumping among the three members.
"We understand that this is a classic move aimed at pushing a number of domestic producers out of the market," he said, Interfax reported.
He said some Russian imports had shot up 30 percent recently. Radostovets also accused Belarussian companies of dumping, without naming any.
Georgy Petrov, vice president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, responded that the issue was for national business associations, rather than governments, to take up.
The three post-Soviet states created the customs union to re-integrate their economies, which had drifted apart after the Soviet Union's collapse.
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