In order to complete your Pokedex, trading has been a pretty important part of the Pokemon games. Pokemon GO looks to be no different, tasking you with literally exploring the real-world to seek out all of the ‘mon.
Trading Pokemon seems like it would be particularly useful in Pokemon GO if certain Pokemon can only be acquired in certain countries. I mean, I know we all wanna complete our Pokedexes, but traveling across the Atlantic seems a little much for a Magmar. Therefore, trading with your friends in foreign countries could be the easiest way to get those seemingly impossible to find Pokemon in your country.
Unfortunately, the launch version of the Pokemon GO app doesn’t actually allow for trading with your friends, or with anyone for that matter. Don’t get too disheartened about the news, however, as it’s likely that we’ll see the feature come in an update at a later date. When that may be is yet to be seen, but with the feature clearly being shown off in the game’s announcement trailer, it would seem that the developer has plans to implement trading at some point.
You can always transfer a Pokemon to Professor Willow, to get something out of your extra Pokemon, however you don’t receive one in return and you’ll never be able to get it back. It’s not quite the same, so we’d suggest just holding out for now.