New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS): Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday exhorted all export promotion councils to work towards achieving the $2 trillion export target by 2030.

In a meeting, Goyal asked the export community to target $2 trillion exports by 2030, comprising $1 trillion merchandise and $1 trillion services exports.

He announced two separate divisions that are being set up in the Commerce Ministry are focused on the services sector in order to attain the $1 trillion services export target.

Furthermore, Goyal urged all export promotion councils to take immediate and effective steps to rise to the challenge of achieving the merchandise export target of $400 billion for 2021-22.

"We need to maintain the export momentum for the next 8 months, with $34 billion exports per month to achieve this target. The goal is ambitious, but possible if all including EPCs and their members work together," he was quoted as saying in an official statement.

He further said that new FTAs are slated for early conclusion, while the FTA strategy is also being revamped.

"Free Trade Agreements are being formulated in a much more interactive process... we are engaging with industry to ensure that FTAs are fairly and equitably crafted. At the same time, FTAs cannot be a one-way traffic, we also need to open our markets, if we want a larger share in foreign markets."

"So, we need to identify areas where we can withstand competition. We can sort out FTAs fairly quickly, if the areas where we have the ability to compete internationally can be identified, as part of a collective effort."

Informing about the progress of FTAs with various developed countries, the minister cited positive momentum in terms of FTAs, with the UK, the EU, Australia, Canada, the UAE, Israel and the GCC countries.

"Our effort is to ensure focus on countries where we have significant potential, where we can compete better and where market size is significant."