Side payments or other commitments made by countries or corporations to secure export orders. In the aerospace industry, companies often have to subcontract parts production and/or to transfer technology in order to receive a purchase order. However, offsets can take many other forms, including barter trade. Lit.: Michael Veseth. Selling Globalization: The Myth of the Global Economy. 1998 (pp.57-9) [HG3881 V396] [Go to source
Requirements imposed by governments on foreign exporters as a condition for approval of major sales agreements. Offsets can be intended either to reduce the adverse trade-balance impact of a major sale or to "leverage" specific industrial benefits for the importing country .In one type of offsets, an exporter may be required to purchase a specified amount of locally-produced goods or services from the importing country .In a second form, the exporter may be required to establish manufacturing facilities in the importing country or to secure a specified percentage of the components used in manufacturing the product from producers based in the importing country.
Actions or investments that companies can take outside their operations to reduce or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Examples of offsets are investments in energy efficiency improvements and projects to capture or dispose of greenhouse gases. Offsets are based on the concept that actions taken anywhere to control emissions will provide the same benefit to the global atmosphere.