LAHORE, March 10: Belgium ambassador Patrick Renault says the question of withdrawal of anti-dumping duty on Pakistani rice and garments will be discussed at the European Union meeting in September next.

The ambassador disclosed this during a meeting of the visiting Economic and Trade Mission of Belgium with Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool at the Governor's House here on Wednesday. The ambassador was also a member of the mission.

He said that the Pakistani textile industry had prepared itself to meet the free market challenges during the past four years and would benefit after the abolition of quota system under the World Trade Organization regime. Other Pakistani industries would also have an easy access to the markets of the developed world.

Trade mission leader Silvana Flagothier and members told the governor that the European business community had welcomed the liberal incentives and higher rate of return offered for joint ventures in oil and gas, food processing, telecommunication, telemetry system installation for water resource management, agricultural machinery, engineering goods and defence equipment production sectors in Pakistan.