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President Trump's promised
tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have

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drawn mixed reaction from political leaders,
including pushback from top congressional

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Republicans.

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American businesses are also divided.

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Hari Sreenivasan spoke to one business owner
about how the tariffs might affect his company.

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Paul Czachor is CEO of the
American Keg Company.

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It's the only domestic manufacturer of steel
kegs in the country.

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Thanks for joining us.

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First, we hear the president is about to sign
off on these tariffs as early as tomorrow

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perhaps.

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Are you a fan of it?

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Hari, thanks for having me on.

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I would say that we are very concerned with
the tariffs.

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I think, when we first started discussing
this, we were cautiously optimistic.

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And now that's turned to a concern.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: How come?

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PAUL CZACHOR: Well, today, our domestic-made
kegs are priced higher than several imports,

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mainly from China.

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And if these tariffs go through, domestic
steel will continue to increase in price,

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but all of the import kegs will still use
the low-cost steel from offshore, and those

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prices will stay the same.

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Therefore, the delta will be even higher to
purchase an American-made keg.

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So, how do you live through that?

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Do you end up absorbing the cost to try to
ride this out?

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PAUL CZACHOR: I don't think we could live
through that.

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I mean, the cost will be significant.

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If steel goes up by $25 -- or 25 percent,
that's going to be a significant increase

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to a stainless steel keg that's made domestically.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: You know, the administration's
core reasoning for is that it's been unfair

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for a long time, and we're just trying to
fix it.

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Have you felt that kind of pressure when you
have been running this business?

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PAUL CZACHOR: I think what the administration
is trying to do is fix a problem in the steel

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and aluminum industry, and not to deep enough
-- I don't have a deep enough understanding

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to tell you how I feel about that, but I'm
sure they're trying to fix a problem.

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But the concern we have is for the downstream
products, such as stainless steel beer kegs.

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That's not going to help any downstream products.

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As I said earlier, those import kegs will
still come in using the low-cost steel.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: So what I'm hearing is,
is if this is bad for your business, what

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happens to your employees?

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PAUL CZACHOR: Well, unfortunately, if it's
-- if it's the worst-case scenario that we're

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looking at, we would be forced to shut down,
just because we couldn't compete using high-priced

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domestic steel.

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You know, the hope from the administration
is, you know, it's got to be a multistep process,

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and, somehow, we have to address the downstream
products that are coming into this country

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with low-cost steel.

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I don't know how we can get that done, and
I don't know if it can happen quickly enough.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: So, how -- I was going to
say, how do you do that?

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I mean, that would mean all the different
products that are made with low-cost steel

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that come in that we are consuming right now.

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PAUL CZACHOR: We certainly will try to, you
know, petition for some tariffs on stainless

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steel kegs.

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But, again, there are several industries that
use steel for their domestic-made products.

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And I don't know how the administration will
address the multiple industries that will

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be impacted with this.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: How many employees do you
have now?

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PAUL CZACHOR: I have approximately 20 employees.

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And, unfortunately, we had to let approximately
10 employees, so we're at -- let them go.

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We were at 30 employees a couple of weeks
ago.

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But we're already starting to see the steel
prices domestically go up, and we're starting

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to lose some business already.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: So, you know, for somebody
who doesn't understand this business, kind

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of break that down for us.

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How does the cost of steel going up into your
kegs impact your business so profoundly that

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you have to start making cuts?

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PAUL CZACHOR: Well, when we go out, our customers
-- we have approximately -- in the U.S., there's

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approximately 7,000 craft brewers, wineries,
and cideries that will purchase those kegs.

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And when we talk with our customers, they're
certainly willing to pay a small price -- or

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a higher price for an American-made keg with
American steel, American workers, et cetera.

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But that price, the delta, is continuing to
go higher and higher.

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So, maybe at $5 a keg, a customer is willing
to do that to support American-made products.

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But at $15 or $20, they're not willing to
do that.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Paul, what I'm hearing is
that these workers that you have are exactly

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who the administration wants to save and want
to see their lives improve, but you're describing

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a scenario where this is actually making it
worse.

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PAUL CZACHOR: Yes.

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And, you know, I believe the administration
wants to fix several items, but they're going

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to have to certainly look at the downstream
products, as I mentioned earlier.

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And I'm sure there's many industries similar
to us that use domestic steel where it's going

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to increase, and not by a trivial amount,
but by a significant amount in the case of

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stainless steel kegs.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: How do you resolve this?

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What do you hope happens?

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PAUL CZACHOR: Well, I would hope that we'd
reconsider some of these tariffs, at least

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delay them, or look at the holistic view of,
how do we fix some of the downstream issues?

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HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Paul Czachor,
CEO of the American Keg Company, thanks so

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much.

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PAUL CZACHOR: I appreciate it.

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Thank you.