ABSTRACT:With the development of China’s foreign trade industry, exhibitions, such as China Import and Export Commodities Fair, become a popular trend for exporters to introduce his products to the world. Meanwhile, disputes occur frequently between the exporter and the importer when the oral offer, which is an usual way of making offer, is used. Thus, this paper studies the causes of disputes caused by oral offer. Research is made from the salesmen who has experience of exhibition or fair through questionnaire and interview. As a result, the study showed that, disputes caused by false oral offer can be divided into technical factors and comprehension factors, and the latter is the main cause of making disputes. In the study of the comprehension factors, the comprehension of the prescription of oral offer is the main factor of making disputes. Solutions and suggestions are then concluded to help the offeror reduce the risk caused by false oral offer making so that they can stay out of a passive position. 

Key words: oral offer；dispute；cause；comprehension

摘要:随着我国进出口贸易的发展，会展业也迎来了发展的春天，如中国进出口商品交易会，中国义乌小商品国际博览会等，全国各地掀起了一股参展的热潮。口头报价是展会上运用得最多的一种报价方式，以其灵活性大、约束性低而深受进出口商青睐；与此同时，因口头报价而引起的争议也接踵而来。本文主要通过对曾经参加展会的外贸工作人员进行问卷调查及采访，研究因口头报价而引起争议的原因。通过调查研究发现，口头报价引起争议的原因可以分为技术因素和理解因素，其中争议双方对口头报价的时效性的理解不同是造成争议最主要的因素。作者通过采访调查，收集并总结了降低甚至避免因口头报价而引起争议的方法及建议，希望能够帮助参展商在展会中提供帮助，避免因此而陷入被动的局面。

关键词：口头报价；争议；原因；理解

From this essay, we can conclude that there are two categories of situations that cause disputes, i.e. technical factor and comprehension factor. Wrong price offering and wrong use of clauses are the main causes of technical factors. However, comprehension factor, which includes different comprehension of the effectiveness, of the prescription, and of the clauses of an oral offer, happened more frequently than the technical one. Among the tree comprehension factors, different comprehension of the prescription is the main reason that causes disputes, such as the term of validity. Although disputes occurred frequently, it still plays an important role in business negotiation. According to the questionnaire, 37% of the surveyed has ever reached a deal by oral offer without signing contracts. With the development of the Chinese exhibition industry, oral offer will be used more and more frequently. However, most exhibitors’ knowledge of the oral offer is not enough, even some of them still have the wrong understanding.

Through the questionnaire and the interview, we also conclude the solutions to decrease the risk of making disputes by both technical factors and comprehension factors. The comprehension factors are more difficult to solve than the technical factors, needless to say avoiding them.