Business Notes TRADE

At first the deal sounds like a bad perestroika joke: How many bottles of Pepsi can a Soviet citizen buy with a merchant ship and a case of vodka? But the barter agreement that PepsiCo and the Soviet Union signed last week is worth a serious $3 billion. In the largest deal ever struck with an American company, the Soviets will trade ships and spirits for expanded Pepsi production. The complex barter system was necessary because the ruble is not readily convertible to Western currency. PepsiCo, which currently produces 40 million cases of soft drinks in the U.S.S.R. each year, will more than double its number of bottling plants in the Soviet Union, from 24 to 50. The expansion will be financed by shipments of Stolichnaya vodka over the next ten years and the sale or lease of at least ten Soviet-built freighters and tankers.