Trump Slaps Lesotho with Staggering 50% Tariffs

The Trump administration has levied a shocking 50% tariff on imports from Lesotho, a small African nation of two million people, as per Al Jazeera.

This marks the highest tariff imposed on any country, delivering a devastating blow to Lesotho’s fragile economy, which heavily relies on exports.

President Donald Trump, who recently dismissed Lesotho as a country “nobody has ever heard of,” announced the tariff as part of a broad package of “reciprocal tariffs” unveiled on Thursday.

The tariffs, calculated by dividing the US trade deficit with each country by the total value of imports from that nation, disproportionately impact smaller economies with limited imports from the US. This has left Lesotho, and other nations like Madagascar, facing crippling levies.

Lesotho’s trade surplus with the US is primarily fueled by exports of diamonds and textiles, notably including Levi’s jeans. In 2024, its exports to the US reached $237 million, representing over 10% of its GDP, according to Oxford Economics. The Trump administration alleges that Lesotho imposes a staggering 99% tariff on US goods, a claim yet to be independently verified.

Trade experts are warning that the steep tariffs on Lesotho and other African nations effectively signal the end of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade deal designed to promote African economic development through preferential access to US markets.

The tariff adds to the economic woes of Lesotho, already reeling from the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a major aid provider to the continent. Lesotho, burdened with one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rates, is particularly vulnerable to the aid cuts, with its health sector heavily reliant on US assistance.