Small business owners trying to break into international markets say US trade policies and the strong dollar affect their ability to export, states a report released on Wednesday.
The exchange rate “has been a big one,” said Jamie Deering, whose parents started Deering Banjo in 1975 in San Diego, California. Exports of the iconic American folk instrument account for 30% of the company’s business.
Many of the 16 small businesses featured in the report entitled “The New Faces of American Trade” also cite the strong US dollar as a factor weakening their potential to export, a complaint they share with larger manufacturers.
A strong dollar makes US products more expensive, and thus less competitive, in overseas markets.
Wei-Shin Lai, who with her husband Jason Wolfe invented SleepPhones -- wearable headphones in a flexible headband - said the company had to pull out of the Boots convenience store chain in Britain because they could no longer compete due to the unfavorable exchange rate.
“It became untenable for us to make money,” she said at a forum on the report Tuesday. Her company is based in the struggling Rust Belt city of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The report, produced by the Global Innovation Forum, a nonprofit connecting small businesses with policymakers and resources to join the global marketplace, examined how these companies use internet resources to expand their export presence.
Like bigger companies, small businesses favor open trade and consistent rules. And trade negotiations are key to keeping markets overseas open to American products.
“If we’re not at the table another voice will step in,” Lai said. “We need to be there,” she said of international trade negotiations.”
Deering told the forum about changes in rules on exporting rosewood that have forced changes in production procedures, since the company uses rosewood inlay on their banjos.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
