Are Governmentally Imposed Countertrade Requirements Violations of the GATT?

Abstract

Money is a universal commodity and the primary contemporary vehicle used to facilitate trade. Markets preceded money, however, since there is no need for money without markets. Barter, the primitive market behavior that took place before money, was a process that entailed people swapping goods for goods and services for services. Barter transactions are necessarily more cumbersome than transactions involving money because of the difficulty of matching parties who desire to trade their goods or services for those of another trader. There are also problems of divisibility and quality of goods.