Passage 2
Countertrade is not the exclusive province of debtor nations. Says Yoffie, "Even countries with strong foreign exchange positions, such as Australia, Canada and Indonesia, are insisting on countertrade in certain areas.Linking imports and exports is way to exert power over multinational corporations.Countries that lack expertise in intemational marketing try to use countertrade as leverage 【to tap the net-works of global firms"】.
But international trade by barter is, infact, an inefficient and expensive means of doing business compared to trading with money. Observes David Yoffie,"To cover the additional costs it incurs in handling goods it is forced to take in countertrade, a multinational company simply boosts the price of the goods it sells." 【Yoffie sees countertrade as a form of protectionis】. "It helps one group and hurts another,"he says.
39.What does "global firms"refer to?
Multinational corporations.
