In the dictionary, the word 'trade' has several definitions. One of those definitions is what we often think of as trade: 'the exchange of one thing for another.' That definition makes it sound as if trade is a simple thing, just exchanging one thing for some other thing.

But another definition makes trade sound more complicated: 'the business of buying and selling commodities.' Trade is a business, this definition tells us, and as a business it involves not just things to be traded but also people all over the world doing all sorts of things.

One of those people is Susan Wexler. It's her job to make trade happen.

Susan Wexler doesn't manufacture anything to sell. She doesn't transport things. She doesn't move products between countries' borders. And she doesn't sell things directly to customers. Instead, Susan - a manufacturers' representative for companies that make women's clothing - is someone who holds the whole business of trade together. She makes the connections that make trade happen.

Susan and her company, Occidental Investments, work with five different companies that make women's clothing. She helps these companies find department stores and fashion boutiques in the United States that will buy their clothing and sell it to customers. In other words, she helps connect people who have something to sell with people who want to buy.

Because Susan knows women's fashions so well, she often helps clothing manufacturers design new products. She has a sense of which colors and styles will be most popular. And she is constantly looking for new things that stores might be interested in selling. But she doesn't work at a department store, or at a clothing manufacturer, or with a shipping company. Instead, Susan makes the connections, and then lets the manufacturers, stores, shipping companies, customs brokers, and all the other people involved in trade do what they do best.

But what happens when there's a problem? What happens when the clothing Susan promised a major department store for their August catalog isn't going to arrive in the United States until late September? What does she do then?

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