PM keen to help exports

WELLINGTON - Prime Minister Helen Clark will meet the Trade Development Board to discuss ways of boosting export performance.

Speaking from Chile via Radio New Zealand, Helen Clark said European and Canadian companies were winning contracts ahead of New Zealanders, partly because of Government-level backing such as export-credit guarantees.

She wanted "to see what facilitation the Government might offer to ease the way for our exporters, in the way the Europeans are easing it for theirs."

Helen Clark said that when she returned to New Zealand this week she would talk to Trade NZ to see how it might improve export performance.

The Prime Minister was in Chile to see Ricardo Lagos sworn in on Saturday as Chile's first Socialist President in nearly three decades.