Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said he held a very good conversation with his counterpart in the European Union in Brussels and that both sides were working together to complete the legal scrubbing of the free trade agreement text within the next 15-20 days.
He said he would meet his EU counterpart on 14 and 15 July in Brussels.He also called upon the leather and footwear industry to target at least $15 billion in exports over the next five to six years and aim for a three-fold increase in its export performance. He urged the industry to leverage the new free trade agreements, which help in diversifying markets and strengthening quality, design, branding, sustainability and scale.
Addressing the Council for Leather Exports National Export Excellence Awards for 2024-25 in New Delhi, Goyal said the sector had the potential to achieve tremendous transformation. “If I was in your shoes, or in your leather shoes, if I may say so, I would not aspire for anything less than a 3x outcome in the next five to seven years,” he said.
