Twin Cities brewery owners say President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are having negative impacts on their businesses.
"At this point, really, the uncertainty is the biggest problem we have in the back," says Back Channel Brewing's Matt Olson. "It kind of feels like we're in that COVID time where all of a sudden you'd get that email saying 'this went up by 30%, this went up by 40%', and you just had to adjust and make that change."
A number of brewery owners joined Minnesota Third District Congresswoman Kelly Morrison (D) in Eden Prairie is calling on the Trump-Vance Administration to provide relief for small business owners.
Morrison says small businesses like Minnesota breweries are need relief.
"And the uncertainty and unpredictability of President Trump's trade wars disproportionately threaten them," says Morrison. "You can't run a business when you don't know if your products are going to be subject to double or even triple digit price increases from any given hour to the next. And I will note this is not good for consumers either. It just causes prices to go up."
Craft brewery owners in the Twin Cities are coming together today to ask for relief from President Trump’s tariffs.
The most difficult part is the increased canning costs from the 25% tariff on steel an aluminum imports, according to Elizabeth Anderson-Schmidt who is with Fat Pants Brewing in Eden Prairie.
"We're here today not just to push for collaboration, but to advocate for common sense," Anderson-Schmidt explains. "We need bipartisan actionable legislation that lifts up breweries and small businesses across America, not months or years down the line, but now."