As the World Economic Forum draws to a close, delegates have mixed feelings on whether this year's forum has delivered the solutions that people were hoping.
World leaders pledged to fight protectionism and to resolve remaining differences this year in the Doha Round of world trade talks.
The fear of policy-makers and businessmen in the US and abroad is that Washington may revert to the strategy it employed at the beginning of the Great Depression.
The world's largest market may respond to recession with new barriers to foreign imports, pushing other countries to respond in a similar way.
Global leaders had a simple message for the world on Saturday: Keep trading.
Leaders said that if nations instead choose to barricade their economies behind new commercial barriers, they risk making the global economic crisis even worse.
Taro Aso, Japanese Prime Minister, said, "We will resolutely fight all protectionism. We will also act in cooperation with other countries towards the early conclusions of WTO Doha round of negotiations."
Many of the participants say that the so-called Doha round of trade negotiations must be rapidly concluded.
Pascal Lamy, Director WTO, said, "First, because concluding the round would be the most effective tool to fight the isolationist pressures they are facing. Second, because it would have a big multiplier effect on a possible recovery, and third because we are obviously in dire need of confidence signals, trust signals."
But the talks did not produce a timeframe for a long-awaited deal in the Doha Round.
The negotiations have stalled because of disagreements between rich and poor countries over opening up farm and industrial markets.
(CCTV February 1, 2009)
