What are the six different types of countertrade? Describe them

What will be an ideal response?

Countertrade emerged in the 1960s as a way to facilitate East–West trade, and its complexity continues to evolve to this day. Countertrade makes it possible for exporters and importers to exchange goods and services without necessarily having to use money as a medium of exchange. Countertrade does not describe one particular type of international transaction, however, but a related set of activities that encompasses various types of barter. It can occur between two or more parties, involve one or more contracts, and use money or not.
The first technique is international barter which involves the transfer of goods or services from a party in one country to a party in another country in return for some other good or service. Trade is balanced in the sense that the value of what is being exported equals the value of what is being imported. Although money is not involved, money may be the numeraire that determines the values of the goods. However, difficulties in valuing various goods and disagreements that can ensue about their equivalence have led to the decline of barter as an instrument of international trade.
The second approach is clearing arrangements. These allow barter to be conducted on credit. Under a clearing arrangement, each of the two parties to a transaction agrees to import a certain value of goods and services from the other. A clearing account is established, and the values of the imports and exports are debited and credited over time as the shipments are made. If the contract has a specified end date, the two parties can settle any nonzero, residual balance with a final shipment of goods or a money payment at the end of the specified period.
The third approach is switch trading which involves a third party, a switch trader, who facilitates the eventual clearing of an imbalance of trade between two partners to a bilateral clearing arrangement. Often, governments are involved in the creation of a clearing arrangement. If one of the countries generates an imbalance of trade, and no hard currency is available to offset the imbalance, it may be sold at a discount to a switch trader, who uses the account to purchase goods in the country that has run the trade balance deficit. The switch trader then resells the goods on world markets.
The fourth approach is a buyback which involves an agreement in which an exporter of physical capital agrees to accept payment in the form of the output of a plant that the exporter helps to construct and equip in a foreign country.
The fifth approach is a counterpurchase, which is similar to a buyback, except the exporter purchases totally non-resultant products from the importer.
The sixth approach is an offset, which is a requirement of an importing country that the price of its imports be offset in some way by the exporter. Offsets are common in contracts for weapons and contracts for other large expenditures, such as power-generating facilities. The exporter agrees to purchase goods in the importer's country, to increase its imports from that country, to transfer technology to the country, or to conduct additional direct foreign investment in the country in return for setting up the facility.