A recent PPAI member survey showed that 80% of suppliers and almost 40% of distributors see tariffs and trade restrictions as the most impactful issues on the horizon.
In response, PPAI sent a letter last week to more than three dozen Congressional leaders and key committee members with a message conveying the economic impact of promotional products and encouraging Congress to exercise oversight of any future tariffs.
The letter, signed by interim President and CEO Dawn Olds and Board Chair Andrew Spellman, vice president of corporate markets for Therabody, is the first step in the Association’s strategy on this issue. Members of the Government Relations Action Council will also be sending letters.
“Between data, advice from our lobbyist and concerns expressed by our members, it was clear that we needed to take action and remind legislators about the impact tariffs have on our industry,” says Olds. “As one of the members of our Strategic Foresight Committee said recently, unfairly high tariffs on our products could create significant price pressure and drive our goods out of the reach of many businesses. This would have a negative impact on both our industry and on the thousands of companies that rely on promotional products to drive brand awareness, education and loyalty.”
RELATED: Potential Trump Tariffs Could Have Far Reaching Impact On Merch Industry
Legislation Introduced
Encouragingly, a group in the House, led by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wa.), has already introduced the Prevent Tariff Abuse Act (H.R. 10181), which would curtail the president’s ability to enact tariffs without approval from Congress.
“This legislation would enable Congress to limit this sweeping emergency authority and put in place the necessary Congressional oversight before any president – Democrat or Republican – could indiscriminately raise costs on the American people through tariffs,” DelBene said in a press release.
PPAI has already received several positive responses from the outreach, including from DelBene’s office, and the Association has asked Thorn Run Partners, our lobbying firm in Washington, to follow up.
Send Your Own Letters
Next, we ask each of our members to download, customize and send the letter below to your own representative and senators. (It’s best to send each email individually with specific salutations, rather than using BCC, as the spam filter for the Capitol email system generally blocks such messages.)
You can find your members of Congress here, then you’ll have to click through to their websites to locate their contact information. Each official’s office handles this differently – some feature a “Contact Me” button at the top of the homepage, while others are less prominent.
Download the letter below and customize with each official’s name and your own. (These fields are highlighted in red type.) You can print and send by U.S. Mail, or copy and paste each letter into an email or into the contact forms on the officials’ websites (recommended).
For questions or suggestions on regulatory or government affairs issues, please contact Rachel Zoch at RachelZ@ppai.org.
