In a country, Trump says no one has heard of it, rates bring chaos

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Alexandra Wexler, The Wall Street Journal 5 min Read 01 Aug 2025, 06:00 is a textile factory in Maseru, Lesotho. Summary of US President Donald Trump promised Africa that trade would replace help, but in one of the poorest countries in the world, his administration is reducing both. Maseru, Lesotho President Trump promised Africa that trade would replace help when he disassembled America’s foreign aid programs shortly after he held office this year. But here in one of the poorest countries in the world, its administration is reducing both. Trump, who has ever heard Lesotho in public as a place “, threatened the small South African country with 50% tariffs, among the highest rates proposed for any single nation or area. Lesotho’s garment exporters already include the shop in the face of falling orders, while other countries with more diplomatic resources are in a hurry to ensure new trade agreements with the White House. The Lesotho government declared a disaster in July because Trump’s imminent rates destroyed the country’s textile industry. The country with 2.3 million people has been prosperous among a 25-year-old US trading program that has given tax-free access to the US market to dozens of African countries. Lesotho Minister Mokhethi Shelile told The Wall Street Journal: “We have used the trade institutions of the trade, a small country,” said Mokhethi Shelile, Lesotho’s Minister of Trade. “I didn’t expect it to be a reason to be punished.” The clothing industry is the largest private employer in Lesotho, which has an annual gross domestic product of only $ 2.3 billion. Track at Afri-Expo Textiles in Maseru, Lesotho.maseru, is home to various textile companies. Including the waiver of fees to register businesses and the creation of a fund to support new businesses, Shelile says. Experts not that the Republican controlled congress will renew it. Hand showed, he said. Lesotho’s winter was in full swing, and the workers, most of their women, shrugged in a corner of the Kaverneous factory in hats and coats, some in blankets. Said this week, Laketseng Billy (44) and a few dozen other women outside the quantum clothing factory in Maseru waited in the hope of work. Textile factories usually pay minimum wage, which has risen to the equivalent of about $ 168 a month earlier this year. SU-Supported Clinic. not. ‘ In Lesotho’s mountainous rural areas, children sometimes live in community churches, which are the largest indoor spaces available in many towns. The US aid programs funded the work. The financing paid out, the principal Cheletsi Lefa said. A program promised by the US Embassy to pay for a new school house for the Khama-Khamane Primary School, but it paid only about half of the promised $ 9,000 before Trump ended the financing. Worked in Maseru’s textile factories since 2015. Hundreds of other women who are looking for work said. Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live mint.