易货贸易是指在换货的基础上，把等值的出口货物和进口货物直接结合起来的贸易方式。 传统的易货贸易，一般是买卖双方各以等值的货物进行交换，不涉及货币的支付，也没有第三者介入，易货双方签订一份包括相互交换抵偿货物的合同，把有关事项加以确定。在国际贸易中，使用较多的是通过对开信用证的方式进行易货，即由交易双方先订易货合同，规定各自的出口商品均按约定价格以信用证方式付款。根据协定规定，任何一方的进口或出口，由双方政府的指定银行将货值记帐，在一定时期内互相抵冲结算，其差额毛有的规定结转下一年度。

综观全球现阶段的易货贸易，主要表现出以下特征：
1.公司个体行为：采用最传统的以货易货手段，互取所需，随着商品的互换经济活动随之截止；
2. 小范围的内部调剂：由专门的易货公司统一发展内部会员，统一结算、收费标准，内部自由调剂，各取所需；
3.电子商务模式：由互联网公司提供网上交易平台，收取会员费，各会员单位自由发布易换信息，自由交易；
4.政府牵头：由政府出面，以本国特色资源换取所需的他国产品；
5. 民间组织协调：由全球较大的专业易货公司签定合作协议，相互交流所属会员信息，实现资源共享，互利互惠。


以上五种表现形式基本包括了易货贸易的交易特征，但存在以下缺点：
交易范围较小，往往出现企业提供的产品或服务易不出去，自己所需的产品易不进来；
无信用保证体系，容易导致企业被骗；
无统一的全球结算体系，没有统一的结算工具和结算标准，长时间形不成交易；
无统一的交易规则，企业无法在公平公正的条件下实现交易；
无统一的管理机构，发生纠纷无法调解；
无专业的大家认可的易货经纪代理商；
无统一的交易平台，易货信息交流不畅，成交与否无法监管。
从目前现代易货的表现形式和存在的缺点来看，成立以全球国家或地区为成员的全球统一易货贸易组织，充分利用全球各大商业银行的结算体系作为结算工具，以专用的国际互联网站和中心城市易货交易所为交易平台，制定全球统一的易货贸易交易规则，必将能够解决现代易货贸易发展的瓶径问题，为未来的全球易货贸易提供无限的商机，这也是全球易货贸易未来发展的必然趋势。


Barter is a system of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is distinguishable from gift economies in many ways; one of them is that the reciprocal exchange is immediate and not delayed in time. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral (i.e., mediated through barter organizations) and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, such as when the currency may be either unstable (e.g., hyperinflation or deflationary spiral) or simply unavailable for conducting commerce.

The inefficiency of barter in archaic society has been used by economists since Adam Smith to explain the emergence of money, the economy, and hence the discipline of economics itself. However, no present or past society has ever been seen through ethnographic studies to use pure barter without any medium of exchange, nor the emergence of money from barter.

Since the 1830s, direct barter in western market economies has been aided by exchanges which frequently utilize alternative currencies based on the labour theory of value, and designed to prevent profit taking by intermediators. Examples include the Owenite socialists, the Cincinnati Time store, and more recently Ithaca HOURS (Time banking) and the LETS system.

Limitations
Barter's limits are usually explained in terms of its inefficiencies in easing exchange in comparison to the functions of money:

Need for presence of double coincidence of wants
For barter to occur between two people, both would need to have what the other wants.
Absence of common measure of value
In a monetary economy, money plays the role of a measure of value of all goods, so their values can be measured against each other; this role may be absent in a barter economy.
Indivisibility of certain goods
If a person wants to buy a certain amount of another's goods, but only has for payment one indivisible unit of another good which is worth more than what the person wants to obtain, a barter transaction cannot occur.
Lack of standards for deferred payments
This is related to the absence of a common measure of value, although if the debt is denominated in units of the good that will eventually be used in payment, it is not a problem.
Difficulty in storing wealth
If a society relies exclusively on perishable goods, storing wealth for the future may be impractical. However, some barter economies rely on durable goods like pigs or cattle for this purpose.
Advantages
Direct barter doesn't require payment in money (when money is in short supply) hence will be utilized when there is little information about the credit worthiness of trade partners or there is a lack of trust.
The poor cannot afford to store their small supply of wealth in money, especially in situations wher money devalues quickly (hyperinflation).