<Dd> Barter is the direct exchange of goods between two parties in a transaction . The principal exports are paid for with goods or services supplied from the importing market . A single contract covers both flows, in its simplest form involves no cash . In practice, supply of the principal exports is often held up until sufficient revenues have been earned from the sale of bartered goods . One of the largest barter deals to date involved Occidental Petroleum Corporation's agreement to ship sulphuric acid to the former Soviet Union for ammonia urea and potash under a 2 year deal which was worth 18 billion euros . Furthermore, during negotiation stage of a barter deal, the seller must know the market price for items offered in trade . Bartered goods can range from hams to iron pellets, mineral water, furniture or olive - oil all somewhat more difficult to price and market when potential customers must be sought . </Dd> <Ul> <Li> Switch trading: Practice in which one company sells to another its obligation to make a purchase in a given country . </Li> <Li> Counter purchase: Sale of goods and services to one company in other country by a company that promises to make a future purchase of a specific product from the same company in that country . </Li> <Li> Buyback: occurs when a firm builds a plant in a country - or supplies technology, equipment, training, or other services to the country and agrees to take a certain percentage of the plant's output as partial payment for the contract . </Li> <Li> Offset: Agreement that a company will offset a hard - currency purchase of an unspecified product from that nation in the future . Agreement by one nation to buy a product from another, subject to the purchase of some or all of the components and raw materials from the buyer of the finished product, or the assembly of such product in the buyer nation . </Li> <Li> Compensation trade: Compensation trade is a form of barter in which one of the flows is partly in goods and partly in hard currency . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Switch trading: Practice in which one company sells to another its obligation to make a purchase in a given country . </Li> <Li> Counter purchase: Sale of goods and services to one company in other country by a company that promises to make a future purchase of a specific product from the same company in that country . </Li>

What is counter trade and its various forms