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Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the Foreign Affairs Ministry is looking at the impact of United States President Donald Trump’s instructions to embassies to temporarily halt all student visa applications.

Asked about the impact of Trump’s directive and whether the Government would expand the GATE (Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses) programme in response to this, the Prime Minister said on Thursday that this is something the foreign affairs officials were looking at.

“They are a sovereign nation and all sovereign nations are entitled to put whatever restrictions they want to or not want to. But we will look into it. On the issue of GATE at this point in time, expanding GATE further would be difficult, in respect of the (mid-year) review and finding funding,” she told reporters.