Tariffs on Promotional Items and 2019 Pricing

First and foremost, I want to thank all of my customers and supporters for a wonderful year. It is truly a pleasure to work with you all and help you choose the right promotional products to market your business and make your events more memorable.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season with their families.

And, although everyone is thinking about the Holidays, I did want to give you a gentle nudge that the next three weeks is the time to either spend any remaining 2018 budget dollars before they expire or look ahead to your 2019 first quarter marketing needs like:

• Corporate sales planning meetings
• Award Events
• Employee wellness programs
• Tradeshows

I've been asked about how the tariffs on imported goods may affect pricing in 2019. As of now, there is a 10% tariff on many categories of promotional items arriving into the U.S. If an item is already in stock in the U.S., the tariff was not added, but it is being imposed on any newly-arriving goods.

Although there is currently a 90 day moratorium on increasing the tariffs from 10% to 25%, we cannot predict with certainty what will actually happen. Many of our factories are publishing their 2019 catalogs without pricing so that they can change prices at a moment's notice. Thus if you have a forecasted need, it is best to act now to insure price stability.

If you need help choosing that perfect, memorable promotional gift that fits your budget give me a call. I can save you time, find you tariff-free items and guide you towards ideas that will make your brand stand out in 2019.

Give me a call at 847-398-5500 or shoot me an email at dona.blunt@newportpros.com to set up a time to talk.