The nation, which the Trump government had with the violent tariff this week, is a small, rural country in southern Africa, which is one of the poorest in the world.
Lesotho, which makes Denim, who goes in jeans with American brands, was hit with a 50 percent tariff. It belonged to several countries with lower incomes on the continent, which were shocked by taxes, which were shocked high above at least 10 percent for almost all of America. Madagascar, where three quarters of the population live in poverty, is now hit with a 47 percent tariff when his clothing, vanilla and other exports enter the United States.
Products from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Libya and Mauritius now have all tariffs over 30 percent, as well as South Africa, which have been attacked by the Trump administration in particular.
Mr. Trump justified all the tariffs of the entire boards by explaining that the world trade system played the United States for a fool who has recorded the tab for the World Moochers.
But Lesotho is hardly a great actor in global trade: Last year, it imported fewer than 3 million US dollars in the United States from the USA and exported $ 240 million there.
The tariffs come from the African continent that already occurred. A few weeks ago, the Trump administration ended billions of dollars for Africa, which had underpinned the health systems and disaster aid to many countries.
At the same time, the governments on the entire continent can exceed foreign debt that exceeds 1.1 trillion dollars. Many spend more for repaying their loans than for health care or education.
For the most part, Africa's exports are tiny. But the effects of tariffs are enormous for countries like Lesotho. Denim's exports and diamonds make up more than a tenth of the country's gross domestic product.
This will “destroy the economy,” said Jacques Nel, head of Africa Makro at Oxford Economics, a research company. Lesotho is already a poor country. It has two million inhabitants and its entire national service is around 2 billion US dollars a year, an annual per capita income of $ 975.
“It has nothing to do with actual tariffs,” said Nel. “You can't import much from the USA because you don't have a lot of money.”
The textile industry is Lesother's largest private employer and produces its export number. The sector was cultivated after the United States adopted the African growth and opportunities law in 2000. In order to increase production on the entire continent, the law of most tasks for goods from Africa south of the Sahara was removed. This law is running later this year, although Mr. Trump effectively ended it this week.
Lesotho's factories made clothes – especially denim – for manufacturers such as Levi and Wrangler. And although Mr. Trump recently called Lesotho a country that “nobody ever heard”, contains his own Greg Norman golf shirts from Trump with Trump labels with “Made in Lesotho”.
Lesotha's Minister of Commerce Mokhethi Shelile said the country had 11 factories that employ 12,000 workers. 70 percent of their production are exported to the USA. “We are a small economy,” said Shelile. “We only have to speak to the US administration because the tariff is not based on facts.”
Other top exporters of textiles in Africa such as Madagascar (47 percent tariff) and Kenya (10 percent) will also feel the stitch.
Since South Africa deals with the United States more, automobiles, agricultural goods and more export, it will be the most affected, said Thea Fourie from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
African nations, the main exports of which are energy or certain critical minerals, are spared because the administration has freed these objects from tariffs.
While the United States imposed the relatively small amount of goods from Africa – only 39 billion US dollars in last year – China has tried to promote trade. It removed all import duties for products from 33 African countries in December.
A bigger problem is the effects that the tariffs on the global economy should have. The outlook has dimmed last week and analysts expect slower growth.
“Even African countries that are not confronted with very high tariffs will suffer,” said Jayati Ghosh, economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
As with every global downturn, the poorest countries will feel the sharpest effects. The deterioration in economic prospects could slow down with other partners such as China and Europe. It also discourages investors.
If inflation causes the central banks to increase interest rates, African countries have a double strike with great debt loads. Their loan payments – most of them are in dollars – are also increased that their ability to earn foreign exchange through exports is crippled.
Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, the Executive Vice President of the African Center for Economic Transformation, said that the only way to develop regional trade networks on the continent was a long-term goal.
The continent has to search for “opportunities to build intra-African trade,” she said.
Zimasa Matiwane contributed to the reporting from Lesotho.