Recently, the US government has wantonly abused tariff measures, imposing additional so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on global trading partners, which has aroused strong dissatisfaction within the United States and internationally, as well as significant turmoil in the financial market.
In the embrace of South Africa, there is a tiny country known as the "Kingdom of the Sky" - Lesotho. This small mountainous country with a population of only 2.3 million has an area of 30,000 square kilometers, which is even smaller than Hainan Island (35,400 square kilometers). The United States will impose a 50% import tariff on textiles from Lesotho, which is the highest rate for a single country in the Trump administration's "Liberation Day Tariff" plan. For this country where 75% of its textile exports rely on the US market, this policy is no different from an economic earthquake.
Lesotho is one of the world's least developed countries declared by the United Nations. In the face of the United States' excessive imposition of tariffs, Lesotho's textile exports will be severely impacted.
Lesotho mainly exports textiles, and the so-called "reciprocal tariffs" imposed by the United States on it amount to as much as 50%. In Maselu, the capital of Lesotho, the founder of a large local garment factory said that a 50% tariff would severely impact the economy of Lesotho.
Kobelli, the founder of a garment factory in Lesotho: These tariffs are a huge blow to us, to our enterprises, to the people of Lesotho, to the country of Lesotho and its economy. No buyer would be willing to place an order in Lesotho at a 50% tariff, so this basically means the business has come to a standstill, but we must keep moving forward and look for other markets.
Mosoto, the production manager of a garment factory in Lesotho: We are a factory with about 500 employees. As you can see, there are many empty machines behind me and no one is sitting there. This means that some people are at a standstill. We originally planned to start producing the orders from the United States from April. But now, our supplier has suspended the supply of fabric because they are worried that the orders will be cancelled or eventually unable to be exported after rashly cutting the fabric. So currently, the supplier has stopped all production related to the orders from the United States
This also means that the production line behind me, which was originally used to handle orders from the United States, is now shut down.
Mosoto said that the union shutdown has put some employees and their families in a difficult situation, and some employees are also worried about the future.
Mosoto, the production manager of a garment factory in Lesotho: There are about 200 employees staying at home. These people have families to support, and some even have five children. If the main breadwinner of the family loses their job, it will be a disaster for the entire family. For our factory, this will also affect production and income, because once production declines, income will decrease accordingly.
Carabello, an employee of the garment factory: This has had a huge negative impact on me. I'm very worried about losing my job. Because if we can't export products, it means there is no income, and the prices of daily necessities are rising every day.
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