Idle Time Gaming, Inc. needed silicon wafers that it knew could be massed produced efficiently by Silicon City, Inc., a start-up firm in India. The Indian company needed MSG (metallurgical grade silicon) in order to make the wafers which it knew it could get from a Chinese firm. The Chinese firm (mostly owned by the Chinese government) agreed to supply the silicon to the Indian company if it could get a certain quantity of gaming hardware from Idle Time. This beneficial exchange is described as:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This type of exchange is called countertrading, where two parties exchange goods or services without the use of currency. In this case, Idle Time is supplying gaming hardware to the Chinese firm in exchange for the silicon that the Indian company needs to make the wafers.