'Shocking': Trump hits Lesotho, Levi's and Calvin Klein denim exporter, with 50% tariff
The country with the highest of all the tariffs announced last week by President Donald Trump, one which he recently said "nobody has ever heard of," is sending a high-level delegation to the U.S. to try and ward off what it fears could be a death blow to its economy.
The tiny, rural southern African nation of Lesotho is also one of the world's poorest countries. Its exports to the U.S., mostly denim and other textiles used for American brands such as Levi's and Calvin Klein, account for more than a tenth of its GDP, according to the consulting firm Oxford Economics. Trump's own Trump-branded Greg Norman golf shirts appear to feature manufacturing labels with Lesotho's name on it.
The government told its citizens not to panic after the U.S. announced a 50% trade tariff that risks wiping out nearly half of its exports. Trump imposed the sweeping new tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of trade rules and threatening cost increases for consumers.
"The latest policy direction undertaken by the United States is shocking," Lesotho's Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told parliament on Friday.
Shelile said that Lesotho is assembling a high-level delegation to travel to the U.S. to try to convince the White House to let Lesotho "maintain the current market dispensation."
He said the tariffs threaten to be death blow to Lesotho's fragile economy. Other African countries such as Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Libya and South Africa all now have tariffs above 30%.
A mountainous nation that charges 99% tariffs on American goods
Lesotho is a mountainous nation of about 2 million people encircled by South Africa. It charges 99% tariffs on American goods, according to the Trump administration. Oxford Economics, the consulting firm, said the textile sector employs about 40,000 workers. Trump said the "reciprocal" tariffs on countries like Lesotho were a response to duties and other non-tariff barriers put on U.S. goods. Lesotho has a large trade surplus with the U.S., chiefly made up of diamonds and textiles.
"The 50% reciprocal tariff introduced by the U.S. government is going to kill the textile and apparel sector in Lesotho," Thabo Qhesi, a Maseru-based independent economic analyst, told Reuters.
"Then you are having retailers who are selling food. And then you have residential property owners who are renting houses for the workers. So this means if the closure of factories were to happen, the industry is going to die and there will be multiplier effects," Qhesi said.
Trump highlighted Lesotho, which has one of the highest rates in the world of HIV/AIDS, during an address to Congress in March as he sought to defend cuts to U.S. foreign aid programs. Some of these programs directly benefit HIV/AIDS prevention and medication efforts.
"Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho," Trump said.
A news outlet in South Africa and separate posts on social media published images last month of a "Greg Norman Performance Golf Polo Shirt" with a Trump golf club logo embossed on it. Shirts that resembled these still appeared to be available on TrumpStore.com, the official retail website of the Trump Organization, the president's private business entity. They say "Made in Lesotho." A company representative did not immediately return a request for comment on the shirts.