February 20th, 2019

To Our AdVantage Line Distributor Partners:

We want to make you aware of a situation we have been monitoring closely and must bring to your attention. As mentioned daily in the news, our United States Government has imposed additional 10% and 25% tariffs on specific products that are manufactured in China and imported and sold into the United States. These tariffs are in addition to the standard duties already imposed on imported products. The tariff went into effect on September 24th, 2018 and will remain in effect until at least March 1, 2019. These tariffs were imposed on China to pressure the Chinese Government to open its markets with reduced taxes on US made products, to honor intellectual property laws, and to eliminate the theft of intellectual knowledge stolen though mandated Joint Ventures. If China and the USA make no progress in trade negotiations by March 1st, 2019 the 10% tariffs will balloon to 25%. Many of AdVantage Line’s products are included in the current 10% tariff categories, and some are now at 25%. Since current and future AdVantage Industries purchases from China will be subject to the tariff expenses in effect at the time of US Import, our new stock arriving at higher costs, will necessitate increases in our selling prices. Despite AdVantage Line taking actions to decrease and minimize the tariff effects, the impact of the government tariff policy over a prolonged period of time is a significant cost to everyone’s business. We are hopeful that the tariff situation will resolve itself with time and that new product inventory entering our warehouse will not experience the higher costs of new tariffs. Please note that all custom manufacturing quotes for products produced in China will be subject to possibly higher costs affecting future product pricing to our distributors. Our pricing will change as we deplete our current stock and replenish with higher cost inventory that is subject to tariffs.

Due to the tariffs, the cost of select AdVantage products is changing almost daily on a variety of goods. AdVantage Line encourages you to check pricing on any large quantity orders to make certain our listed pricing for existing stock is valid. Please take this into consideration as you quote and place orders in the coming months and feel free to contact us with any questions.