Trump Hits Lesotho With Record Tariff, Threatening Economy of Tiny African Kingdom

47th president slaps highest tariff yet on small African nation

President Trump imposes record tariffs on 60 nations, including a 50% tariff on Lesotho, targeting long-standing trade imbalances and affecting African nations.

With tariffs exceeding 40% in Cambodia and Laos, and even 50% in Lesotho, new US taxes hit some countries in Asia and Africa.

Trump's tariff formula confounds the world, hitting the poor hardest

Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, U.S. President Donald Trump's formula for calculating those levies has a serious side: it is also hitting some of the world's poorest nations hardest.The math is simple:

At the beginning of March, Donald Trump referred to Lesotho as a place “of which no one had ever heard of.” A month later, this small country in southern Africa is on everyone’s lips because it was penalized with tariffs of 50% on its exports to the United States. Washington’s highest rate for a tiny state, where 2.3 million people live and whose GDP barely exceeds 2 billion dollars (1.818 million euros) per year. Continue reading

Lesotho: Trump tariffs 'not based on facts'

Mokhethi Shelile, Trade and Industry Minister of Lesotho, assesses the new US tariffs. Lesotho is the worst affected African country with tariffs of 50%. The country fears job losses and factory closures.

The tiny Lesotho is at the top of the US tariff package with 50 percent. Other African countries are also hit hard and are likely to drift further towards China.