Commodities, containers and connections

For many people international trade is an abstract concept because the term evokes images of dry statistics and trends, or sometimes heated discussions shown on the television news. As a result, few people outside the world of finance and economics really understand the role trade plays across the world.

I was equally mystified before I traveled to Valencia, Spain, from Shanghai on the container ship MV Cosco Netherlands and witnessed how commodities made in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, cross the ocean to enter foreign markets and improve people's lives.