Washington, D.C. – Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is calling on the Trump administration to quickly approve applications from Pennsylvania businesses seeking exemptions to new steel and aluminum tariffs. In a letter sent today to Wilbur Ross, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Sen. Toomey stated that 11 PA businesses are facing significantly higher costs from the new tariffs and have been unable to source replacement materials domestically.

“Many Pennsylvania companies that use steel and aluminum as inputs are already experiencing harmful effects from these new taxes,” wrote Toomey. “In light of these harms, I am concerned about the slow pace at which the Department is reviewing exclusion petitions…Clearly, there is a need to reform the current petition process.”

The letter raises concerns about the growing backlog of petitions and requests that the Department reconsider its policy requiring every business to submit an exclusion petition even for products that have already received an exemption from the tariffs. American businesses have submitted more than 5,500 petitions for tariff exemptions, but just seven percent of the applications have been reviewed by the Commerce Department to date.

The following PA firms have filed or intend to file exclusion petitions with the Department and have notified Sen. Toomey’s office of these actions: Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (Midland and Brackenridge), Ardagh Metal Packaging USA, Inc. (Bloomsburg and Carnegie), Ball (Horsham), BWAY (York), CP Industries (McKeesport), Crown Cork (Philadelphia and Hanover), The Giorgi Companies, Inc. (Blandon), MacLean-Fogg (Saegertown), NLMK (Farrell), Precision Metal Services, Inc. (Montgomeryville), and Silgan (Langhorne).