News Releases

UWI and Mac Arthur Project Examine Caribbean Border Security

For Release Upon Receipt - October 15, 2007

St. Augustine


The University of the West Indies (UWI), Business Development Office and the Graduate Institute of International Relations, in collaboration with the Mac Arthur Project, will host a conference on Border Security, titled ‘Caribbean Trade and Border Security: Where are we six years later?’ The one-day conference, which marks six years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, will take place on Wednesday 31 October, 2007, at The UWI Institute of Critical Thinking.

The Conference aims to bring together participants from the various government agencies and the private sector to provide updates to stakeholders on various issues, including the effect of the implementation of various new worldwide security procedures on Trinidad & Tobago’s trade and security, the appropriate strategies to ensure the efficient movement of goods and services and the regional experiences gained from Cricket World Cup 2007 and the CSME.

The conference includes a panel discussion which will examine Trinidad and Tobago’s trade performance since the implementation of worldwide security measures. The panel discussion will be co-chaired by Dr Stephen Flynn, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, and Professor Anthony T. Bryan, Senior Advisor, UWI Business Development Office and Senior Associate, Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, D.C.

A subsequent roundtable will consider appropriate strategies to ensure the efficient movement of goods and services, in the context of changing global security procedures. Panelists include a number of persons involved in border security, such as representatives from the Customs & Excise Division, the Immigration Division, the Defence Force, Port Authority, and the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA).

This year’s conference is one segment of an ongoing project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, called ‘Adapting Border Controls to Provide Global Public Goods: A Caribbean Case Study’. During the past six years, the Project has convened conferences or workshops with academic, public policy institutions, and international organizations in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, USA and the Dominican Republic. The conference builds on similar conferences on border security held in October 2002 and September 2004.

The deadline for registration is October 19, 2007.

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