India, EU working to finish legal scrubbing of FTA text: Piyush Goyal

India and the European Union (EU) are expected to complete the legal scrubbing of the free trade agreement text in the next 15-20 days, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday in New Delhi.“I had a very good conversation with my counterpart (EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcivic) on Sunday. I am meeting him on July 14 and 15 in Brussels along with a delegation of business persons,” Goyal said at the Council of Leather Exports (CLE) Export Excellence Awards. He asked leather exporters to aim for $15 billion of exports in the next 5-6 years from around $4.5 billion. “We should look at diversifying our markets. Today 77% of our exports goes only to 15 nations. I think now there is time to diversify all over the world,” he added.

#WATCH | Delhi: Union Minister Piyush Goyal says, "Leather making is a 7,000-year-old art. Traces of this can be found in the Indus Valley civilization also... We have to take pride in our artisans, our craftsmen, in our ability to capture world markets with high quality… pic.twitter.com/aILuozDBkG

— ANI (@ANI) July 6, 2026

India and the 27-nation bloc announced in January the conclusion of negotiations for the trade pact. After the legal scrubbing of the text, both sides are expected to sign the agreement by the end of this year and may implement it next year. Once the text is verified and translated into the EU’s official languages, the European Commission will formally propose it to the Council of the European Union. The Council must vote to authorise the official signing of the agreement.