The 50% reciprocal trade tariff on the tiny southern African mountain kingdom was the highest levy on US President Donald Trump's list of target economies.

"The latest policy direction undertaken by the US is shocking as it has been a very important market for Lesotho," Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told parliament on Friday, adding that 45% of exports went to the US.

He said that officials had already engaged the US embassy "to clarify and how, why Lesotho was included in the list of, such high reciprocal tariffs".

Trump on Wednesday hit America's global trading partners with tariffs, upending decades of rules-based trade that campaigners have long said is exceptionally favourable to rich countries like the US.

Lesotho's exports to the US, mostly textiles for popular brands such as Levis, added up to $237 million in 2024 and account for more than a tenth of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"Lesotho is also assembling a high-level delegation to the US to try to maintain the current market dispensation," Shelile said.

In the medium term, he said, the kingdom would "increase efforts to export to alternative markets such as the European Union and the Africa free continental trade area".

Encircled by a SA mountain range, the kingdom of 2 million people is one of the world's poorest countries, with a GDP per capita of $916 in 2023, according to World Bank figures.

--Reuters--