In the early days of the commercial barter industry, barter company owners didn’t cooperate or even communicate with one another. This issue’s cover story related how that began changing, as our article about the National Association of Trade Exchange’s (NATE) Third Annual Convention indicated.

One of the highlights of that convention was the attendance of three outsiders, from firms that each did hundreds-of-thousands of dollars annually through trade exchanges. The three were representatives from a fine art dealer, a 4-color printer, and a new car dealership.

While their personal perspectives—outlooks and attitudes—were most interesting, more so were their candid announcements of what they liked and disliked when working with a barter company. When you read what they said you’ll be surprised, like many in the audience that day.

Gary Monkman, NATE’s 37-year-old president, was very eloquent and passionate in our cover story interview. He was adamant in his belief that every independent barter company owner should work within an association that supports independent owners.

The history of NATE’s beginning (and the reasons behind it) was authored by Tom McDowell, who has remained very active in the industry including a long term as NATE executive director.

This issue also included IRTA executive director Paul Suplizio’s letter to California assemblyman Steve Peace, stipulating why the commercial barter industry is against the California Barter Bill (AB124).

An extensive Countertrade Section included many exceptional articles on a topic where there’s much interest, but little published information. We pointed out how Susan Groenwald, a visionary in the barter business, was a financial backer of the film Barter & Countertrade Keys To Success For Doing Business With China…a 90-minute video narrated by the former U.S. Senator & Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Charles Percy of Illinois.

Leo Welt, president of Welt International, provided us with his insights on “Countertrade In Latin America,” and outlined three basic ways of using foreign trade in “New Approaches For Your International Trading Efforts.” There was also an article titled, “Countertrade & Barter Is Big Business In China.”

Yoram Yahav shared his ideas on the importance of research prior to doing a countertrade deal; and Christopher Korth, Professor of International Finance at the University of South Carolina, gave us, “An Overview Of Countertrade.”

Trader Drew articulated his belief that the best kept investment secrets are those held by the commodity market consultants. Several highly-leveraged examples showed the enormous profits possible for successful traders who were able to put well-negotiated back-to-back trades together.

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