Ramps Logistics CEO Joins Global Tariffs Panel at Breakbulk Americas 2026 as Trinidad-Developed AI Platform Returns

Shaun Rampersad speaks on the Breakbulk Live Stage on tariffs and project risk, while Valier Technologies presents trade compliance platform MAWI AI on the Voices Stage

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago & HOUSTON, September 18, 2026--Ramps Logistics Chief Executive Officer Shaun Rampersad will join international trade and project cargo specialists on stage at Breakbulk Americas 2026, the largest event of its kind in the Americas, taking place September 22–23 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

On Wednesday, September 23, Rampersad joins "Planning in the Fog: Risk, Tariffs and the Cost of Resilience" on the Breakbulk Live Stage. In this audience-led panel, international specialists in trade, customs, procurement and project delivery take questions on delivering major projects through tariffs, trade restrictions and operational uncertainty.

When tariffs and trade rules change, the cost of moving the heavy equipment that energy and infrastructure projects depend on can change with them. The panel will discuss how companies keep major projects on track and on budget through that uncertainty, with Rampersad sharing the view of a Trinidad and Tobago company that has moved this kind of cargo between the Caribbean and the United States for four decades.

"The Caribbean has moved heavy, complicated cargo through Houston for decades," said Shaun Rampersad, Chief Executive Officer of Ramps Logistics. "What has changed is that trade rules now shape the cost of a project as much as the lift itself. Breakbulk is the right place to have that conversation, and we are glad to bring a Trinidad and Tobago perspective to it."

Trinidad and Tobago technology will also be on show. On the Breakbulk Voices Stage, Gerard Rique, Manager of Innovations and Solutions at Valier Technologies, will present MAWI AI, a trade compliance platform that classifies goods, calculates duty, determines export control classification and prepares filing documentation from a single set of shipping documents.

The session addresses a problem that has grown as U.S. trade policy has changed over the past eighteen months. For goods entering the United States, the choice between two valid tariff classifications can significantly change the duty payable. Many of those decisions are still made manually, one entry at a time, by customs brokers who carry the liability for getting them right. The audience of cargo owners, freight forwarders and U.S. customs brokers will hear what the platform delivers today and what is in development, including integration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection import filing.