This decision brings a little and poor state to the state, that Trump was making fun of a place “nobody has heard of”.
The Trump administration has imposed a 50% steep rate on Lesotho, a small African nation depleted by two million people – the highest rate taken from any country.
The measurement gives the economy of the Lesotho, which is strongly based on exports for its modest gross domestic product (GDP) of $ 2 billion.
President Donald Trump, who made fun of Lesotho last month as a country “no one has ever heard”, announced it as part of a set of “reciprocal rates” presented on Thursday.
Trump’s new prices were calculated on the basis of the American trade deficit with each country, divided by the total value of imports of this nation. Consequently, small savings with limited imports from the United States – such as Lesotho and Madagascar – were the hardest affected.
The Lesotho trade surplus with the United States is largely motivated by exports of diamonds and textiles, including Levi jeans. In 2024, its exports to the United States totaled $ 237 million, representing more than 10% of its GDP, according to Oxford Economics.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration claims that Lesotho imposes a 99% price on American goods.
The high levies of Lesotho and other African states have reported the end of the Growth and Opportunity Act (AGEA) trade agreement which was supposed to help African economies develop thanks to preferential access to US markets, commercial experts said.
He also aggravated pain after Trump’s administration dismantled the American International Development Agency (USAID), which was a large aid provider for the continent.
Thabo Qhesi, an independent economic analyst based in Maseru, said that the American price in Lesotho “was going to kill the country’s textile and clothing sector), his largest private employer.
“If the factories were closed, the industry will die and there will be multiplier effects,” said Qhesi. “The Lesotho will therefore be dead, so to speak.”
The Lesotho government did not immediately comment on commercial prices. But his Minister of Foreign Affairs told the news agency Reuters last month that the country, which has one of the highest HIV / AIDS infection rates, felt the impact of aid reductions, because the health sector depended on them.
