US president imposes 50% reciprocal levy on the impoverished state: the highest of his so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs

The government of Lesotho told its citizens not to panic after the U.S. announced a trade tariff that risks wiping out nearly half of its exports.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have struck among others the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho, one of the world's poorest nations.

But the fallout from the U.S. tariffs could be severe. Lesotho’s Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile warned of looming factory closures and job losses in the textile sector, which employs about 12,000 people. “We are deeply concerned,” he said, adding that the government would send an urgent delegation to Washington to negotiate a better deal.

Lesotho’s textile industry, a key pillar of its economy, faces an uncertain future after US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on imports from the country. With nearly 75 per cent of its textile exports going to the US,

It was the highest levy imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in his sweeping new tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of rules-based trade and threatening cost increases for consumers.

President Donald Trump has imposed a record 50% tariff on goods from Lesotho, a small African nation heavily reliant on U.S. trade.

Lesotho, the small kingdom that produces Levi’s jeans and Trump’s golf shirts, faces heavy tariffs from President Trump. While neighboring countries in southern Africa are also facing tariffs ranging from 10% to 37%,

Lesotho scrambled to put together a delegation on Friday to head to Washington to engage with the United States on tariffs that risk wiping out nearly half of its exports, its trade minister said, in what could be a death blow to its economy.

Previously known as Basutoland, Lesotho is a high-altitude, landlocked country with no coastline. It holds the distinction of being the world's largest sovereign enclave, sharing a 687-mile border exclusively with South Africa.