Lesotho hurriedly organised a delegation on Friday to travel to Washington to discuss tariffs with the United States that threaten to eliminate nearly half of its exports, and a potential catastrophe for its economy, according to its trade minister.
The 50% reciprocal trade tariff imposed on the small southern African nation was the highest rate on U.S. President Donald Trump’s list of targeted economies.
“The latest policy direction undertaken by the United States is shocking as it has been a very important market for Lesotho,” Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told parliament on Friday, adding that almost half of its exports went to the United States.
He added that officials had already contacted the U.S. embassy “for clarification on how and why Lesotho was included in the list of such elevated reciprocal tariffs.”
On Wednesday, Trump imposed tariffs on America’s global trading partners, disrupting decades of trade rules that critics have long argued disproportionately benefit wealthy nations like the United States.
Lesotho’s exports to the United States, primarily textiles for well-known brands such as Levis, amounted to $237 million in 2024, representing over 10% of its GDP. In the medium term, he stated that the country would “intensify efforts to sell to alternative markets like the European Union and the African continental free trade area.”
Surrounded by a mountainous region of South Africa, the kingdom of 2 million residents is among the world’s poorest nations, with a GDP per capita of $916 in 2023, according to World Bank data.
