SUWANEE, Ga. — The Trump Administration trade talk trickled down to Suwanee Monday night.
Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler toured a manufacturer there called Winton Machine Company.
Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco spoke one-on-one with Loeffler after the walk-through.
“It’s critical that companies like this can ship their goods around the world on a level playing field and bring our manufacturing back home,” said Loeffler.
Winton is a business that builds machines that can bend and fabricates tubing so that other companies can make their product. Without machine builders like Winton Machine, NASA wouldn’t have the Mars rover, Israel wouldn’t have the Iron Dome and a lot of us wouldn’t have a refrigerator.
The owner, Lisa Winton, works with technical schools and the National Association of Manufacturers. She has a strong sense of how other manufacturers are coping with tariff fluctuations.
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“It’s a challenging economy. Manufacturing doesn’t really like uncertainty,” said Winton.
She said higher tariffs have left some turning to American-made machines.
“I might have a fairer playing field, and we do ship around the world, and a lot of our competitors are importing their equipment,” said Winton.
At the same time, she said the cost of materials and certain components has increased due to tariffs.
“We will continue to go across the country and continue to find out what manufacturers need to continue to grow and hire,” said Loeffler.
According to a National Association of Manufacturers survey, one-third of small and medium-sized manufacturers could raise prices and slow hiring due to tariffs.
“Our manufacturing loans at the SBA are up 74 percent in President Trump’s first 100 days compared to President Biden’s first 100 days.
You can check SBA data, which shows the loan numbers are equal to the last quarter President Biden was in office.
“I’ve talked to over 200 manufacturers. They’re growing. They’re investing,” said Loeffler.
Winton said her company is investing. However, she said the expiration of the 2017 tax package will make that more difficult next year.
That’s a topic she focused on with Loeffler on Monday.
“We were thrilled to host and look forward to working with the Administration to advance policies that provide the certainty manufacturers need to grow, invest, and create jobs,” said Winton.
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