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Business Negotiation is an important part of conducting an export trade. It is the dealings between the seller/exporter and the buyer/importer in order to reach an agreement on price, payment, quantity, quality, and other terms or conditions of a sale. Evidently, the conclusion of a sales contract results from the business negotiation to the satisfaction of both parties. Business negotiations are carried out either by writing or verbally. In the latter case, traders talk about the terms or conditions of a sale with each other, in person or by telephone. The foreign merchant may call on the domestic trader upon invitation, or the exporter will make a visit to an overseas importer on his own account. Business talks are also held at international fairs where businessmen all over the world can negotiate with one another over export and import trading. Through verbal negotiations trading transactions between Chinese and foreign merchants are concluded in large amounts at the China Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou twice a year.
When business negotiation is done by writing, communications by letter, by cable or by telex are the usual means which the traders use. In practice, letter-writing plays a vital part, and that is why a prosperous trader always has a great deal of correspondence to deal with. However, sometimes both types, communications in writing and in spoken words, are used interchangeably in one single transaction, as the case may be.
The formulation of the export sales contract represents the conclusion of some possibly difficult negotiations and, accordingly, particular care should be taken regarding the preparation of its terms. The following terms are talked over, for the main, in order to come to an agreement during a business negotiation. They are those terms about the description of the goods, about their quality, quantity, packing, price, shipment, insurance, payment, inspection, claims and disputes, arbitration and force majeure. Only when the two parties all agree on the various terms consulted can the business be done and the contract of sales concluded.
To reach an agreement of the various terms mentioned above in the business negotiation, in most cases, needs going through five stages or links: enquiry, offer, counter-offer, acceptance and conclusion of a contract. Of course, it is not necessary to have all the five steps taken for every transaction. Sometimes, only offer and acceptance will do. It is stipulated in the laws of some countries that only offer and acceptance are the two required factors, failure of which will make no contract.