Many international businesses and corporations are using countertrade in selling their products overseas. Companies are purchasing local products to offset the exports of their own products into a market. Countertrade is a form of barter in which exporting firms is required to take the counter value of its sale in local goods and services instead of cash. There are three specific forms of countertrade: barter, counter purchase, and buyback. Barter is the direct exchange of goods and service between two parties without the use of currency. An example of barter is when one student exchanges an apple for an orange with another student. Counter purchase is the sale and purchase of unrelated good but with the involvement of currency. An example of counter purchase is when Coca Cola sold sodas to Dell for computers. Buyback is the repayment of the original purchase through the sale of a related product. An example of buyback is paying back Dell printers with ink form another company.  Countertrade transactions can be complicate and troublesome sometimes. Transactions occur in two- way or three-way transactions. The interest in countertrade has been growing, even though it presents problems to current firms and corporations. Developed countries are still using countertrade. There are several problem assumptions that firms faced when they decided to use countertrade. One reason might be that the goods that are taken in countertrade are usually undesirable by the public. If the product was desirable, the payment would be already converted into cash. Another reason is that the trading details and the amount of money were difficult to work out. There are two main reasons when countertrade should be use. Countertrade should be use when dealing with “soft currency” in developing countries. Soft currency is a currency that is expected to depreciate. Also it should be used when tariffs or quotas prevent trade.    Source: Shapiro, Alan C., and Atulya Sarin. Foundations of Multinational Financial Management. Custom Edition for California State University, Fullerton. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009.