Some of President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs are on hold for now. However, they could have huge impacts in Pennsylvania as billions of dollars in goods comes from Canada annually. Kevin Schreiber, President and CEO of York County Economic Alliance and Jonathan Bowser, President & CEO of Steel Works Construction shared how this could impact businesses in Central PA.

Asia: Kevin, so could you give us an overview on these new tares on Canadian goods and what they mean for York County's economy?

Kevin: I think right now we're in a period of a little bit uncertainty. You know, I think what most in, you know, the country, let alone here in central Pennsylvania and across the Commonwealth are wondering are when the tariffs might go into effect, if the tariffs might go into effect, and then ultimately why and what they'll cover. But, you know, unquestionably right now with respect to the Canadian tariffs, Canada is our number one trading partner in Pennsylvania. So, you know, annually Pennsylvania exports over 14 billion worth of goods to Canada and we receive about 13 and a half billion worth of goods back from Canada. So, imagine 25 % tacked on top of that. Someone's ultimately going to pay that. And, you know, unfortunately the burden generally will fall to consumers or, as I'm sure Jonathan will talk about, businesses as they conduct their business. But here in central Pennsylvania, There's just shy of 40 ,000 jobs that depend on Canadian trade. So that's a significant amount of our workforce right here across Pennsylvania. There's about 300 ,000. And right here in central Pennsylvania, and that's generally Dolphin, Lancaster, York, and Cumberland counties. We're exporting about two and a half billion worth of goods to Canada and about 240 million worth of services to Canada. So, there's a lot of money on the line. And I think right now there's a lot of uncertainty. And as I noted, you know, I think we're just sort of trying to grapple with if these are going to happen, when they may happen, what they may cover, and then why.

Asia: So, like you said that Pennsylvania imports around 13 billion in goods from Canada. What specific industries in York County will feel those effects the most?

Kevin: These tariffs don't discriminate. They really will be across the board and felt mutually by everyone. Some of the biggest industries are agriculture manufacturing. York County specifically were a strong manufacturing hub in central Pennsylvania. About 18 percent of our labor force is employed in advanced manufacturing. There's steel going across border up to Canada there's parts going up to Canada. There's motorcycles going up to Canada. So, you know, obviously we're concerned about the manufacturing impact, but unquestionably agriculture, chemicals, energy, manufacturing, and then services as well. Professional services, travel, things of that nature, all from central Pennsylvania going up there.

Asia:  Jonathan steelworks constructions it relies on materials and goods and supplies kind of like what Kevin was just saying Are there any sourced from Canada from your supplies?

Jonathan: I would say that probably the largest Interiors that we see sourced in the construction industry and we're a general contractor Is usually in the steel and aluminum is probably the biggest ones that we've been really Just keeping an eye on and just trying to understand a little bit better one of the things that we've that we've seen Probably over the last month as these tariffs conversations have really ramped up has been in the proposals that we receive from a lot of our steel and aluminum contractors that are putting on 10 to 15 day price guarantees and they're not guaranteeing anything beyond that. And so for us, you know, that does create a lot of uncertainty in our marketplace because if we're pricing a project today, we may not get started on our project for six months. And so, you know, right now, we don't know where to really price some of these products. And if we're doing a steel building a superstructure, it could be a third of the cost of the overall project, and if you're looking at a potential up to a 25 % increase or more or anywhere in between there, it's really been hard to really wrap our arms around it. So, as Kevin said, we haven't seen that impact yet in the pricing, however the uncertainty of it has created a lot of angst and anxiety in what we do.

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