Agency in Business English

In international trade, a lot of business work is handled not only by direct negotiations between buyers and sellers, but also by means of agents and intermediaries. When the company seeks to develop its markets, it often resorts to the help of agents, who will be employed to represent the company and sell its products in a given area too distant to be effectively covered by the company itself. An agent to be appointed should have sufficient means to develop the trade and have reliable connections in the designated area. As far as buying and selling are concerned, there are mainly two types of agents: general agent and sole (exclusive) agent. However, there are other types of agents with varying degrees of authority, such as brokers, factors, forwarding agents.