Ramos visits NZ, Australia

Ramos visits NZ, Australia

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos is to leave today for
Australia and New Zealand to witness the signing of business
deals worth some US$750 million, the government said yesterday.

Ramos is expected to bring up the Philippines' growing trade
deficit with New Zealand, which reached $110.26 million in 1994,
and a still-worse trade deficit of $441.7 million with Australia
the same year, officials said.

The president, his wife Amelita, several cabinet officials and
legislators, and more than a hundred businessmen are due to fly
into Auckland on Aug. 16 on a special Philippine Airlines flight,
a government statement said.

During the two-day visit to New Zealand, Ramos will hold talks
with Prime Minister James Bolger and Governor-General Catherine
Tizard, and will meet with the leader of New Zealand's opposition
party.