The article surveys ihe literature on countertrade with special wference to the Asian-Pacifi region. It covers the five most common forms of 'tied' trade: barter, counterpurchase, buyback, oflset and bilateral agrwmnts. It focuses on China as the most important centrally planned economy in the region; on the two regional market economies which have made use of counfertrade, Indonesia and Malaysia; and on Singapore as a countertrade service centre. The literature survey consists not so much of the relatively few academic books and articles on the subject but of a miscebny of articks to asskt practitwnea and to study appropriate responses at the firm, rur~wnal and global kveL Ardo H Hansson is ROADLY DEFINED, countertrade B occurs whenever two or more international transactions of opposite sign arc somehow linked. Most typically, imports are made conditional on the seller reciprocating with export purchases, investments, o r other favours. While this need not be 'trade without money', it must involve a non-monetary quid pro quo. As barter and other forms o f 'tied trade' are more cumbersome than free monetary exchange, growing international financial integration might be expected t o diminish these practices. Instead, the early 1980s were a time when countertrade broke 'out of all imaginable bounds' (Cohen and Zysman 1986). This has spawned a body of writings to document and explain countertrade, to assist practitioners, and to study appropriate firm-level, national and global responses. To our knowledge, this literature has not been reviewed (the only general bibliography IS that of Healey (1986)). In this paper, we survey those contributions most relevant t o the Asian-Pacific region, defined to include China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan dnd Thailand. The complete body ofwritings exhibits an inordinately diverse set of approaches and views. It is hardly a literature in the traditional sense in which later writings build upon and advance earlier works. Even on well-defined sub-themes, writings tend t o be either unrclatcd o r parallel.O n e clear but unsurprising patlcrii is .t close link between writers' attitudes and their position or audience. Business w r i t i n p