Lesotho was slapped with the White House’s highest tariff rates in the list released by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Americans bringing goods in from the small southern African country will have to pay an additional 50% import tax.
The US has a big trade deficit with Lesotho, which sells textiles – including jeans – and diamonds to America.
The 50% rate for Lesotho was part of what Trump described as “reciprocal tariffs” imposed on imports from dozens of countries, including 20 in Africa. All nations face a minimum rate of 10%.
Responding to the news, Lesotho’s Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile said his government would send a delegation to Washington to argue against the new trade measure.
“My biggest concern was the immediate closure of factories and job losses,” the AFP news agency quotes him as telling journalists on Thursday.
One of Trump’s aims with his tariff announcement is to reduce his country’s trade deficit with the rest of the world.
And this gives a clue as to why Lesotho has been hit so hard.
According to White House figures, in 2024 while the US exported just $2.8m (£2.1m) worth of goods to Lesotho, its imports from the southern African country amounted to $237.3m.
In their calculations, US officials used the difference between the value of imports and exports in setting the tariff rates for different countries.
In recent years, Lesotho has been successful in selling textiles to the US, making the most of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). This US legislation from 2000 allowed eligible African countries to send some goods to the US without having tariffs slapped on them.
Signed into law by President Bill Clinton, Agoa was intended to help African countries grow their economies and create jobs, but these tariffs appear to threaten its future.
Lesotho’s garment factories have made jeans for major American brands such as Levi’s and Wrangler in recent years.
Clothes make up nearly three-quarters of what Lesotho exports to the US – its second biggest trading partner after South Africa.
The value of that US trade amounts to more than 10% of its total annual national income. The extra costs that the tariffs will incur for American buyers could reduce demand and therefore have a big impact on Lesotho’s economy.
“This has been a devastating day for us,” Teboho Kobeli, founder of Lesotho clothes manufacturer Afri-Expo Textiles, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
He said he had spent the day in talks with industry colleagues and the government about what to do next.
While his business, which Mr Kobeli says employs around 2,000 people, can look for other markets, the US is so significant that “we can’t just shelve the US market… we need to do everything we can to bring [it] back”.
Colette van der Ven, a lawyer who specialises in international trade, told the BBC that the 50% figure Trump has imposed on Lesotho “makes little sense logically”.
She described it as “ironic” that the US was effectively punishing Lesotho for the success it has enjoyed under Agoa.
“It’s this sense that the US is being taken advantage of because it’s running a trade deficit. It’s really reflective of a new ideology about trade and who is benefiting and who is not”.
What about other African countries?
Other African countries hit with extra tariffs include 47% for Madagascar, 40% for Mauritius, 37% for Botswana and 30% for South Africa.
Nigerian exports will be hit too – at a rate of 14%.
Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Liberia were among those countries whose exports to the US will be subject to the baseline tariff of 10%. The US is not running a trade deficit with these countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs were “for countries that treat us badly”.
During Wednesday’s announcement at the White House, the Republican president said that the US had been taken advantage of by “cheaters” and had been “pillaged” by foreigners.
“Our taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen any more,” Trump said.
South Africa is on the long list of countries dubbed the “worst offenders”, which also includes China, Japan and the European Union. These now face higher US rates – payback for unfair trade policies, Trump said.
“They have got some bad things going on in South Africa. You know, we are paying them billions of dollars, and we cut the funding because a lot of bad things are happening in South Africa,” he said, before going on to name other countries.
US-South Africa relations have become increasingly strained since the start of the Trump presidency in January.
South Africa’s biggest export to the US is platinum, which may be exempted from the import tax. But its second biggest export – cars – will be hit hard.
In a statement, the South African presidency condemned the new tariffs as “punitive”, saying they could “serve as a barrier to trade and shared prosperity”.
“We now have to look amongst ourselves and say, within the customs union in southern Africa… how we’re going to respond to these issues,” South Africa’s Trade Minister Parks Tau is quoted by AFP as saying.
“Diversifying our trade is going to be important… enhancing our work on the African continent and collaborating,” he said.
The White House released a list of roughly 100 countries and the tariff rates that the US would impose on what Trump dubbed “liberation day” for the American people.
Trump added 34% to the existing 20% duties on all Chinese imports to the US, making it the highest rate globally.
In addition, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars.
The US is expected to start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties for certain nations starting on 9 April.
African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya have long-standing trade relations with the US, and the new tariffs could significantly affect existing economic ties.
Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec, a South Africa-based banking and investment firm, believes the impact will be “very negative”.
But she told the BBC that the tariffs could accelerate the current shift in Africa’s trading practices.
“What we would expect to see is greater trade with the Global South, where possible, [there] is likely to be some switching in trade partners.”
The tariffs also come in as many African countries are already grappling with the effects of US foreign aid cuts, which provided health and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable nations.
Trump announced the aid freeze on his first day in office in January as part of a review into the US government spending.
