US President Donald Trump shows his signature on Section 232 Proclamations on Steel and Aluminum Imports in the Oval Office of the White House on March 8, 2018, in Washington, DC.
Trump on Thursday declared the American steel and aluminum industries had been "ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices" as he signed off on contentious trade tariffs. "It's really an assault on our country," he continued. "I've been talking about this a long time, a lot longer than my political career."
Asia Tabb is the Host and Producer for WITF’s The Spark.
She began her start in radio when she joined legendary radio/ host producer, Doc Christian. She worked closely with Doc for her role on “The Gospel Express, on WHOV 88.1 FM and was a host for “Unrestricted Praise” at Praise FM.
Previously she was an anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana at KTAL/KMSS. Asia also worked as a Multi-Media Journalist at WHP-TV here in Harrisburg, PA.
Asia got her break into news at KTVO in Ottumwa, Ia. While the 2020 caucuses were gearing up. Asia followed many candidates through their campaign trail from Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and 46th President of the United States Joe Biden.
Asia was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She graduated from Old Dominion University in 2018 with a major in Communications.
Asia is extremely friendly so don’t be afraid to say hi if you see her out and about.
Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump shows his signature on Section 232 Proclamations on Steel and Aluminum Imports in the Oval Office of the White House on March 8, 2018, in Washington, DC.
Trump on Thursday declared the American steel and aluminum industries had been "ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices" as he signed off on contentious trade tariffs. "It's really an assault on our country," he continued. "I've been talking about this a long time, a lot longer than my political career."
Aired; March 12th, 2025.
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 tariffs 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 of 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 Dauphin, 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 and manufacturing. York County specifically we’re a strong manufacturing hub in central Pennsylvania. About 18 percent of our labor force is employed in advanced manufacturing. There’s steel going across the border up to Canada there’s parts going up to Canada. There are 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 Construction…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 materials 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.
Listen to the podcast to hear the entire conversation.
