Wednesday, June 7, 2017 11:15 am

AUGUSTA, Maine (From news report) -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage is in Finland this week as part of a Maine trade mission focused on the forest products industry.

According to LePage's communications office, the governor is participating in a trip organized by the Maine International Trade Center along with George Gervais, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. On Monday, LePage met with members of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation in Helsinki and planned to meet Tuesday with executives of several pulp and paper companies.

The companies include Metsä Group, Stora Enso, Andritz Oy, Huhtamaki and Atol Avion. The latter two companies, Huhtamaki and Atol Avion, have operations in Waterville and Brunswick, respectively. And on Wednesday, LePage and other members of the trade mission are expected to tour an icebreaker ship base in Helsinki and meet with representatives of Arctia, which provides icebreaking vessels to Finland to open shipping lines.

As with most of the governor's official trips, LePage's communications office did not publicize his participation in the trade mission to Finland but, instead, released details of the trip in response to media questions regarding his whereabouts. LePage is expected to return to Maine on Thursday.