^I think Cornflakes's communications pipelines idea is a good way to deal with distance penalties in this regard. Distance penalty is the spirit along which I voted no (I'd rather have 'no, but with effort you can do it' as opposed to 'yes, but with caveat X')

I think you should only be able to trade through other ships that are far away IF, you have the right research,trade status,etc.
It shouldn't something you can do as low tier explorer,freelancer,trader.