- SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler toured Utah manufacturing sites on Tuesday.
- Loeffler said President Donald Trump's tariffs will help small businesses.
- Utah faces a shortage of around 4,000 skilled machinists.
The head of President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration said Tuesday during a visit to Utah that Trump understands the strain small businesses are facing because of tariffs.
During a tour of Davis Technical College, Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration, told the Deseret News that the unpredictability of Trump’s economic policy is actually proof that his administration is prioritizing main street over Wall Street.
“We’ve already seen 75 countries at the negotiating table, already done two great deals, one with China, one with the U.K., and so we’re seeing President Trump’s entire agenda work for small businesses,” Loeffler said.
Last Thursday, the White House announced a trade deal with the United Kingdom that would reduce America‘s tariffs on U.K. auto imports in exchange for the elimination of British tariffs on U.S. ethanol.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the U.S. and China would drastically reduce their tariffs against each other while negotiations continue. But the pause did not include plans to end China‘s unfair trade practices.
Over the past week, Loeffler has crisscrossed the country as part of a “Made-in-America road show.” Her stop on Tuesday focused on post-secondary training for manufacturing jobs and a site tour at Paramount Machine, a primarily aerospace manufacturing company in Salt Lake City.
Her message is that despite the upheaval of global markets, “there is no bigger champion for small business than President Trump.”
“Every single economic policy he has is geared toward getting small businesses back on their feet,” Loeffler said.
More skilled workers needed for manufacturing jobs
As the Trump administration moves to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., there is a dramatic need for a more skilled workforce, according to Loeffler.
States like Utah have recognized the importance of technical education, a trend she said will continue as factories return to American soil.
Jeff Lund, the vice president of Finance at Davis Technical College, said that Davis Tech can be a model for other institutions because of its industry partnerships that link graduates directly to the workplace.
“In the United States, we’ve not produced enough trained machinists for the work that we already had on shore, and so with these new trade policies, the need for those workers will increase,” Lund said.
The state faces a workforce shortage of around 4,000 skilled machinists, according to the Utah Manufacturers Association.
Joining Loeffler were college administrators as well as Kaysville Mayor Tamara Tran and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, in his new position working as a regional advocate with the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.
Loeffler’s visit was a “comforting” sign that federal counterparts view Davis Tech as a top spot for producing manufacturing talent who can continue to strengthen the state’s economy, Tran said.
“We want the workforce to stay here and so that’s why I’m really excited the SBA is here,” Tran said.
Small business struggling amid tariff uncertainty
But reshoring U.S. manufacturing capacity won’t happen overnight.
In the meantime, many Utah businesses that depend on international trade are on the verge of collapse, according to Jonathan Burgoyne, the CEO of My Medic, a Utah-based first-aid kit company.
My Medic sources most of their materials from Asia, Burgoyne said. The trade war with China has been seen by Burgoyne’s team as a “big poker game on the national stage,” making it difficult to decide when to make new investments as they wait to see if the gamble pays off.
“We know it’s a bargaining chip for him,” Burgoyne said. “How long is it going to last? How long can we wait it out? On our end, it’s become a game of balancing what inventory we have on the shelves and then keeping our cash flow going to keep things alive.”
The latest reduction in tariff rates gives the company some breathing room but there is still uncertainty around whether a final deal can be reached, Burgoyne said. Until then, My Medic has inventory sitting on Chinese shelves that has become too costly to ship to the U.S.
One of the biggest difficulties businesses like Burgoyne’s are facing is cash drying up as they delay bringing in new inventory from overseas.
Megan Ware, the interim president of the Utah Manufacturers Association, referred to a business in St. George that manufactures a product exclusively in Utah but can no longer afford to import a critical machine they had already preordered from Germany.
Ware and Burgoyne said the Small Business Administration could help some Utah businesses stay afloat by providing short term loans to “weather the storm,” or facilitating loan deferrals for companies that lost their profit margin because of tariffs, or simply increasing their resources to educate businesses on how tariffs will impact them.
Loeffler did not say whether the Small Business Administration would consider this type of help for struggling companies.
She pointed to recently introduced legislation that has not yet passed that would double the size of loans her agency guarantees to $10 million, but only for manufacturers.
“It’s just going to be an on-ramp that is going to take a period of adjustment, but that’s already underway,” Loeffler said.
Signs that tariffs are helping U.S. businesses
There are multiple data points suggesting that Trump’s economic policies are boosting small businesses, according to Loeffler.
The Small Business Administration saw an 80% increase in the number of loans taken out during Trump’s first 100 days, she said, a sign that businesses are confidently planning for the future.
Loeffler also mentioned that since Trump entered office there have been over 500,000 new jobs added to the economy. Small businesses typically account for 55% of job growth.
Additionally, on Tuesday, Trump announced a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in U.S. defense, technology and energy infrastructure. Trump had requested $1 trillion in investments — close to the country’s entire gross domestic product.
“We just continue to rack up the wins,” Loeffler said. “Now we need to make sure we have a skilled workforce ready to get our manufacturing even further afield here in America.”
Small businesses in Utah that have benefitted from Trump’s tariff policies include plastic part manufacturer Merit 3D in Price and high-precision machining company JD Machine in Ogden, which have gained customers because of tariffs making foreign business more expensive, according to Ware.
John Rausch, the general manager at Paramount Machine where Loeffler visited on Tuesday, said their operations have not been impacted very much by tariffs.
The larger obstacles to growth were those focused on by Loeffler, according to Rausch: regulations and workforce shortages.
“We’re not currently ... getting beat up on the tariffs,” Rausch said. “But our challenge is to continually overcome the increasing costs of just doing business.”
