Free trade gets vote of confidence

While very few, if any, governments are indifferent to the current political and economic uncertainties, the inconvenient truth is that the most advanced and most vibrant economies have been hit the hardest by unilateralism and protectionism.

Should the world's major economies succumb to such disruptive, regressive tendencies, the world could be staring at the disintegration of the global economic and trade regime.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who just concluded her 12th visit to China, said a resounding "no" to those tendencies, sending a clear and loud message of unswerving commitment to multilateralism and free trade.