“There are clouds in the horizon where people are looking at pulling back on free trade.”

Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez stressed the importance of maintaining free trade when talking to CGTN host Tian Wei on the sidelines of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Papua New Guinea.

“World leaders should take a step back and look at the welfare of everybody,” said Dominguez, “rather than the welfare of one or two individual nations.”

He pointed out that the Philippines' GDP grew at 6.5 percent last year, among one of the fastest in the world. However according to a recently released study, trade tensions could cost as much as a 1.5 percent drop to that growth, which would be a great harm to the still developing country.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)