This has been around for a few versions now, but foreign traders won't trade most of the things they carry. They only carry a few items, and most of them are marked as no trade because the npcs think that they "need" them.

For instance, a foreign trader carrying: Long mail hauberk, 4 smoked meat, battleaxe, club. Ask him to trade, he offers nothing but club. I can see if he may want to keep the battleaxe as his weapon, but why is he lugging around a 30lb long mail hauberk (not wearing it) if it isn't for trade? And what kind of "foreign trader" would come to the wilderness carrying nothing but a CLUB for trade? It's obvious that the hauberk was generated as a trade item, it is in pristine condition, they just won't trade it.

The examples are numerous. The only time they trade something is if it isnt something that they think they "need" such as extra weapons or very very occasionally (like 1 in 100+) they happen to be wearing one armor and carrying another, so they don't see it as needed and will trade it. Almost every single time the good items they carry are marked as needed and not offered for trade, so all you are offered is one or two junk items that are useless 99% of the time.

This seriously needs to be fixed, as right now the only way to get items from foreign traders is to just kill them. It would be so much better if you could just trade with them as intended.

The problem wasn't as noticeable when they carried more items, since they always had something to trade even if they hoarded several good things. The lack of items is also a bit silly in my opinion. Perhaps they could be given more armor to wear(the damaged kind that they actually wear) and come equipped with one good weapon each and high weapon skills (so they are harder to kill) and also given a few more items to trade?

If they were truly tough to kill and actually offered some decent items for trade instead of hoarding it all, it would make encountering them an actual trading opportunity instead of what it is now: Npcs to kill for items, since they won't trade anything anyway.