Business and uncertainty are not a healthy mix. The promo world (as well as most other industries) is experiencing those drawbacks with the rapidly changing tariffs applied in recent months, not only affecting costs but also providing little sense of when the conditions will stabilize.
- Currently, a 90-day pause has been placed on global reciprocal tariffs, lowering the import fees to 10% for most countries. Each of those countries could see their individual tariffs raised significantly when the pause ends.
- However, tariffs placed on Chinese imports – a common source of many promotional products – are currently at 145%.
Of course, those are the elements of uncertainty that are out of promo’s control.
However, on both micro and macro levels, navigating tariffs requires having a confident awareness of country of origin. Any given tariff placed on an import will be based on the country of origin, which means being able to trace a product all the way through its creation is crucial, now more than ever. According to PPAI Board Chair Denise Taschereau, CEO of distributor Fairware Promotional Products, there’s plenty of room for improvement in that regard.
Denise Taschereau
CEO, Fairware Promotional Products
“The promotional products industry may have built itself on creativity and innovation, but we’re lagging regarding supply chain transparency,” Taschereau said in a recent post. “The basics are missing with limited or outdated COO data in our platforms and product catalogs.”
‘Moving Into Must-Have Territory’
Complete supply chain transparency is no minor task in some cases, so it is only sustainable when treated like a non-negotiable option. Companies like Nike pride themselves on providing Manufacturing Maps for their consumers.
“With all the uncertainty swirling, having a good grasp of your supply chain and specifically country of origin of the products you are pitching to clients is moving into must-have territory,” says Elizabeth Wimbush, PPAI’s director of sustainability and responsibility.
Elizabeth Wimbush
Director of Sustainability & Responsibility
- With tariff declarations sometimes changing faster than the time it takes to reasonably put orders in for products, planning and complying becomes exponentially more difficult without supply chain information at hand.
Taschereau says this will take collaboration between distributors, suppliers and business service providers in order to create a landscape with reliable country of origin data. She suggests that the industry’s popular technology tools make up-to-date country of origin information part of their platform.
“Her recommendation that this become commonplace and woven throughout our technology tools is especially important,” says Wimbush. “Leaning into collaboration and knowledge-sharing is how our industry continues to grow and evolve.”
More Than Just Proactive Business
There is, of course, an ethical element to all of this. Complete supply chain transparency allows all involved parties to avoid utilizing poor manufacturing conditions in the making of promotional products.
“We need reliable COO data for compliance and to empower more competent, ethical choices across the board,” says Taschereau.
- Visible COO information on product pages outlining details can empower distributors to make informed decisions and communicate transparency to their clients.
RELATED: Sourcing Locally vs. Global Trade: What’s Promo’s Path Through Tariffs?
A survey on EU consumer attitudes revealed that 72% of consumers claim that transparency is crucial to purchasing.
“By embracing COO transparency, we become partners clients can trust – not just suppliers,” Taschereau says. “We stand for something more significant than the product itself.”
