By Faith Barbara N Ruhinda Updated at 1432 EAT on Monday 18 May 2025

President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a steep tax on most goods that come into America has tested the mettle of small business owners whose companies are reliant on global .

And the fits and starts that have come along with Trump’s tariff program are not just testing these business owners’ patience, they’re also threatening their very operations.

The latest, and perhaps biggest, curveball came last week when the US and China agreed to sharply lower their respective tariff rates for 90 days. The de-escalation brought the US tariffs on Chinese goods down to 30% from 145%.

Markets cheere the news, and recession forecasts lessened in intensity.

And that surely meant that small business owners who faced steep tariff bills including Busy Baby founder Beth Fynbo Benike, whose next shipment of baby products was going to come with an additional $230,000 price tag should be super grateful, right?

Fynbo Benike answered that question with some seething sarcasm and a dose of realism.

The tariffs came down. 30%. Fynbo Benike said on a TikTok video posted last week. That still sucks, by the way. That sucks for any small business owner. It’s still going to cost me $48,000 more than this shipment would’ve cost me two months ago.”

The erratic nature of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the severity of newly imposed tariffs have wreaked havoc on small businesses in the US, causing costs to quickly skyrocket, unsettling longstanding supply chains, swiftly stifling growth and expansion plans and threatening to kill American-bred businesses.

A 30% tariff for Chinese imports “is still a step up, and that’s not the only tariff we’re looking at. We’re looking at tariffs around the globe.

That relief was necessary, but let’s not kid ourselves. The impact of this trade war is going to be significant, and I think it’s going to hit smaller businesses potentially the worst.

The steep and shifting tariffs are threatening to unwind decades-forged relationships and make her business unsustainable, she said.

It’s an industry that we don’t produce today here,” she said, noting that the costs to produce bags, as well as caps and the roller “cookie carts” for scouts would skyrocket if they weren’t made overseas.

These families are scraping by to join the Girl Scouts for their daughters, and they can buy that cart now for $39,” she said. “If I made it in this country, it would be $200.”

These are areas where we have to realize that we have to shake hands, she added, noting the volatility could be too much for her and other businesses to withstand. Whether you like him or not, it doesn’t matter, [Trump is] one of the smartest negotiators ever

He basically throws everyone off balance, and then he brings them back.

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