Brief answer received by staff in commercial channel (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
silk road
'commercial channel' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'brief answer received by staff' is the wordplay.
'brief' becomes 'silk' (I've seen this before).
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'received by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'staff' becomes 'rod' (both can mean a pole or stick).
'a' inserted inside 'rod' is 'road'.
'silk'+'road'='SILK ROAD'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for silk road that I've seen before include "Ancient trade route from China" , "Old trade route to China" , "Caravan route" .)