Trump small business admin Kelly Loeffler talks tariffs, taxes, gas prices

Kelly Loeffler tours Alpharetta automation plant

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler visited an Alpharetta factory to discuss how federal tax cuts and new metal tariffs are shaping Georgia's manufacturing landscape.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - U.S. Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler was in metro Atlanta Thursday talking about President Donald Trump's tax cuts, also addressing ongoing anxiety surrounding gas prices with the war in Iran.

 "There's no question that there's a temporary increase in fuel prices, but it is temporary," Loeffler said. "That's very clear because this President has already achieved the military objectives of this effort."

Why you should care:

At Premier Automation in Alpharetta, Loeffler touted the benefits President Trump's tax breaks have had on small businesses. 

The company makes robotic parts that help automate factories and large machines.

"We've got rising consumer confidence," Loeffler said during her visit to Premier Automation in Alpharetta. "Rising retail sales, three months in a row of manufacturing output expanding."

Dig deeper:

However, a sore spot for the company has been 50 percent tariffs on imported aluminum, copper, and steel.

"Especially when you're dealing with electricity, you're always going to be, in one way or another, looking at copper," Tim Baker, Premier Automation engineering manager, said. "We do have to pay more attention to the materials we use. And we had to look at the tariff brackets for things coming in for that and trying to account for that as we quoted on our builds."

The administrator says these are growing pains for stateside manufacturing.

What's next:

At the gas pump, she sees prices eventually going back down.

"These are definitely short-term headwinds," Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administrator, said. "And just look at the forward pricing curve in the oil market. It has oil back down in the $70 region by December." She is heading to Alabama tomorrow to speak with owners there.