Alister McIntyre, OCC, OM, CCH, has been described variously as economic consultant, economic advisor, scholar and policymaker. Perhaps, the most insightful characterization is the one provided by the Honourable Lloyd Best in 1998, entitled "Sir Alister McIntyre, Polycrat and Nation Builder".The papers in this collection support that designation. One of the central features of this collection is the focus on building a Caribbean sustainable space through regional integration for successful international trade negotiations and a trading system that promotes development. What distinguished McIntyre from many of his colleagues was not only the technical brilliance of his writings on trade and economics but his equally perceptive understanding of the role of human resources in the building of a sustainable livelihood in small developing states. These papers reflect the vision of one who was committed to creating an economic space to facilitate the movement of economic factors, goods,services, skills and human resources. They underscore Best's view that Sir Alister was a nation builder. But the nation he envisaged was not the individual territories in the Caribbean space; instead, the one he proposed, advocated, participated in and informed the building of those institutions that would collectively constitute the Caribbean nation, as he conceived it