What is a representative office?
In most jurisdictions, a representative or a liaison office means an office, which cannot engage in commercial activities, opened by a foreign company which is not registered (as a local subsidiary) in that jurisdiction.
For example, if an US Corporation who wants to sell its products in another country, it can open a representative office in that country and perform marketing activates. However, since the representative office is not permitted to undertake commercial activities, the customer/client needs to buy the products from the US Corporation directly. The representative office cannot sell the products directly to the customer/client.