How Trump's 145% China Tariffs Could Devastate Small Businesses: "We Can't Find the Parts We Need"

In 2017, Christina and Ian Lacey decided to take a chance and leave their stable careers to turn their hobby into a small business.

The risk and hard work paid off. The Denver couple started Retuned Jewelry from their home and have seen impressive returns — averaging $360,000 in annual sales, most of which stemmed from frequenting music and art festivals.

Christina, once a dental assistant, and Ian, formerly in IT, transform donated guitar and bass strings into handmade jewelry such as earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.

“We’ve worked 24/7 on this,” Christina told The News Pulse. “This is our baby. We’ve pushed through burnout just to keep it alive.”

But all the hard work may fall to the wayside due to President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, which accounted for nearly $440 billion in goods to the United States in 2024. While businesses of all sizes are impacted by tariffs, smaller operations — like Retuned Jewelry — are more exposed, according to John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that represents a network of 85,000 small businesses.

He said small businesses will have to raise prices, cut staff, delay growth plans or shut down entirely just to keep up with the rising costs of imports they can’t source domestically.

“Small businesses have thinner margins and less leverage to negotiate with suppliers,” Arensmeyer told The News Pulse.

Even though the Laceys use free strings that would typically wind up in landfills, the remaining materials—such as beads, chains, clasps, and hooks—they depend on originate from China. Ian mentioned they have attempted to find domestic sources for these items, yet such products are not manufactured in the United States.

“We’ve looked,” he said. “There’s no facility here that makes what we need.” The Laceys have already raised prices on their products ahead of the tariffs.

Arensmeyer said small businesses usually don’t have the cash reserves to ride out unexpected price hikes. He said the tariffs amount to a crisis for small businesses, one where “they don’t have much control.”

For The Mitchell Group—a family-run textile business now led by the second generation and located in Niles, Illinois—the absence of liquid funds might lead to significant consequences when encountering disruptions in manufacturing or facing other issues.

Due to our business approach, tariffs have significantly impacted our liquidity," stated Ann Brunett, the company’s chief operating officer. "Generally, we maintain inventory. Therefore, I am obligated to pay a 45% tariff—along with duties—to import items that could remain shelved until our distributors require them. This essentially blocks our capital.

According to President Bill Fisch, The Mitchell Group has 18 full-time employees along with 12 sales reps, bringing in nearly $10 million in yearly income.

Brunett said the company will do “everything we can” to avoid shutting down. She said that the business “means everything to us” and that the company wants to avoid laying off their staff.

Fisch has explored Vietnam, India, Malaysia and even Europe as production alternatives. “No one has the infrastructure China does,” he said. “We need our coated fabrics produced under one roof and to our exacting standards. You can’t make one part in Vietnam, another in India and assemble in Thailand. It doesn’t work.”

Import duties probably won't bring textile manufacturing back to the U.S.

Although Trump has promoted tariffs as a means to strengthen domestic manufacturing, Arensmeyer indicated that an upsurge in U.S. production might take considerable time to materialize.

“Fixing this isn’t an overnight process,” Arensmeyer stated. “Simply imposing tariffs won’t make people purchase domestic goods, as we lack production of these items within our own country.”

Over the last few decades, the U.S. textile and clothing sector has progressively weakened, primarily because of less expensive foreign manufacturing and increased global integration. according to Sheng Lu , a professor at the University of Delaware’s Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies.

Fisch said key materials the Mitchell Group uses, like specialized vinyl polymers and textiles, are virtually nonexistent in the United States. China is the world’s largest textile producer, manufacturing everything from cotton and silk to synthetic fibers and vinyl polymers.

He added that he isn’t able to find enough workers to staff a fabric factory in Mississippi.

"The textile industry for products like ours? It has vanished around here," Fisch stated.

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