The Panama Canal, a masterpiece of engineering and a pillar of global maritime trade, handles 6% of the world's freight traffic. Its expansion in 2016 allowed the passage of larger vessels, such as neopanamaxes, expanding connectivity to 36 new routes, 220 ports and 10 new countries. Today, the Panama Canal connects 180 shipping routes and 1,920... See more

Take the Red Sea. It’s one of the most important arteries of global trade, linking Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal. But since late 2023, escalating conflict around the region has made it too risky for many vessels to pass through. By May 2025, traffic through the Suez Canal had dropped almost 70% from 2023 levels. Instead, ships began

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Why the slowdown? Global trade faces a tricky mix of headwinds: weak demand, persistent inflation, and tighter financial conditions. Even the WTO projects that overall merchandise trade will grow barely 0.1% this year.

Beyond short-term shocks, there’s a deeper story: the link between global trade and GDP is weakening. Economies are growing, but

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