Lesotho scrambled to form a delegation on Friday to Washington to interact with the U.S. tariffs, which could potentially eliminate nearly half of its exports, which could kill its economy.
The 50% reciprocal trade tariffs for the hill kingdom of southern Africa are the highest tax on the list of target economies by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told parliament on Friday: “The latest policy directions implemented by the United States are shocking.
He said officials have hired the U.S. embassy to “clear and why Lesotho is listed on… such a high list of mutual tariffs.”
Trump reached the U.S. global trading partner with tariffs on Wednesday, and campaigners have long said rules-based trade is very favorable to wealthy countries such as the U.S. Although theories about calculation rates have emerged, the White House has not yet delineated a reason for a specific tariff rate.
According to the World Bank, the Kingdom of South Africa is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita GDP of US$916 in 2023.
Lesotho’s exports to the United States, mainly textiles from popular brands such as Virginia (Levi’s jeans and diamonds), representing one-tenth of the country’s GDP.
“The 50% mutual tariff proposed by the U.S. government will kill Lesotho’s textile and clothing sector,” Thabo Qhesi, an independent economic analyst based in Massachusetts, told Reuters.
According to the U.S. government data, U.S. exports to Lesotho are $2.8 million. In 2024, the U.S. imported $237.3 million from Lesotho, up from 2023, but in recent years the figure hovered around or above the $300 million trademark.
According to economic complexity, observations of delivery trucks, vaccines and food preparation machinery constitute most of the U.S. exports to Lesotho in 2023.
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Oxford Economics says that the textile industry has about 40,000 workers and is Lesotho’s largest private employer, accounting for about 90% of manufacturing employment and exports.
“Then you are selling food retailers. Then you will have a residential owner who rents homes for workers. So that means that if you want to close the factory, the industry will disappear and there will be a multiplier effect,” Qhesi said.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocity tariffs are described as “well-planned” but target the African country Lesotho, an island of U.S. air bases, Easter Islands in Australia and McDonald Islands – most of the residents are penguins.
Minister Sherry said Lesotho is forming a high-level delegation to the United States. In the medium term, he said, the Kingdom will “increase its exports to alternative markets such as the EU and the African Free Continental Trade Area”.
Lesotho has been previously influenced by previous philosophical changes in foreign aid by the Trump administration.
Its foreign minister told Reuters last month that the country is one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rates, as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cuts the impact of U.S. international development agencies as its health departments rely on them.
In his speech to Congress last month, Trump condemned some of the aid previously designated as Lesotho, characterized by “an African nation” that “no one has ever heard of.” The laughter of Republican lawmakers can be heard in the House of Representatives after his comments.
