However, the mice are often faster and smarter and may well be more important in the long run. Small businesses, including an increasing number of businesses owned by women, play a crucial role in both our bilateral trading relationship and the global trading system. That role is likely to increase with the growing role of e-commerce and innovative technologies like ICT and biotechnology. In the United States, we have long recognized that small business is the motor of our economy. Our 24 million small businesses employ 53 percent of our workers and 38 percent of our high-tech workers.
Industries dominated by small business create a disproportionate share of new jobs.
Women now own almost 40 percent of all small businesses in the U.S. Small companies, of course, can grow into big companies. Small business also plays a major and growing role in international trade. Between 1987 and 1997, the number of U.S. small business exporters tripled, growing to over 200,000. Small businesses still play a smaller role globally than they do at home. But that may change.