Davos, Switzerland - January 22, 2025 WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday called for calm and restraint in response to rising global tariff tensions, advocating against protectionism. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2025, Okonjo-Iweala highlighted that global trade reached a record 30.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, defying the prevailing protectionist trends. Recognizing the importance of confronting protectionism, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the importance of a free and open trading system, calling for cooperation and rational solutions to global challenges. The WEF Annual Meeting 2025, taking place from Monday to Friday in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos, gathered 3,000 attendees from over 130 countries to address key global and regional challenges, such as responding to geopolitical shocks, stimulating growth to improve living standards and stewarding a just and inclusive energy transition. Shotlist: Davos, Switzerland - Jan 22, 2025: FILE: Geneva, Switzerland - June 21, 2022 1. Various of World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters, logo, sign; Davos, Switzerland - Jan 22, 2025 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General: "It's been a challenging few years for world trade. We've seen protectionism on the rise, various measures being used by different countries as they feel that they want to defend more their national interests. But in spite of all that, I do have something I want to say, and that is that world trade has been remarkably resilient. We've seen world trade now at 30.4 trillion dollars, which is higher than the pre-pandemic peak. And that is remarkable. Even more so, our latest numbers show that 80 percent of world trade is taking place on WTO terms. So in spite of the bit of turbulence that we see, trade is showing some resilience."; FILE: Qingdao City, Shandong Province, east China - 2024 3. Aerial shots of cargo ships sailing; Davos, Switzerland - Jan 22, 2025 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General (starting with shot 3/partially overlaid with shots 5-7): "Most members of the WTO recognize a free, open and stable multilateral -- predictable multilateral trading system, has helped the world tremendously to improve living standards. This lifted more than 1.5 billion people out of poverty. And even when you exclude China, we still see it's had a big impact. So with that positive impact, I think there is a desire to do the most possible to keep the multilateral trading system open, free and predictable. We need to be very careful that trade policy uncertainty and fragmentation does not impact the world in an adverse way. Let us not rush to take action and counter-action, because any other approach of tit for tat will not work. So let's keep steady. Let's keep everyone deliberate. Let's chill."; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] FILE: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, south China - Date Unknown 5. Aerial shots of cranes handling containers at port; FILE: Fujian Province, east China - Date Unknown 6. Aerial shots of container ship; 7. Aerial shot of vessels, containers, cranes at port; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] FILE: Shanghai, China - Date Unknown 8. Aerial shots of cityscape. [Restriction - No access Chinese mainland]