News24 | Lesotho delegation off to US to plead for lower tariff as clothing orders dry up

A garment factory worker does quality checks on denim products in Ha Thetsane Industrial Area in Maseru, Lesotho. The country is a major exporter of textiles.

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Lesotho is sending a high-level delegation of cabinet ministers, and industry and labor union leaders to the US this weekend to plead for a reduction in tariffs, which are crippling the country’s crucial textile industry.

“We want the negotiations to start at zero as a starting point because it is where we were before the new US policy,” Lihaelo Nkaota, a spokeswoman for Lesotho’s trade ministry, told Bloomberg on Saturday. “We want the tariffs to be below the 15% for the benefit of the employers and workers.”

The US introduced a 15% levy on the South African mountain kingdom in August. Although lower than the 50% President Donald Trump had threatened in April, it has sent a shock wave through the economy.

Before the tariffs were imposed, most of Lesotho’s exports to the US — its second-biggest trade partner — entered duty free under the now-abandoned African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Labor unions and street vendors plan to march on the offices of Lesotho’s prime minister on 17 September to voice their dismay at the impact the policy is having on their businesses and livelihoods.

The textile sector — Lesotho’s biggest private employer — employs 12 000 people and indirectly supports 40 000 jobs, supplying major US retailers such as Walmart, JC Penney and Levi Strauss & Co. Some factories have been forced to cut jobs as orders dry up.

The delegation, led by Trade and Industry Minister Mokhethi Shelile, includes Labour and Employment Minister Ts’eliso Mokhosi. Representatives of the Lesotho Textile Exporters Association and labor leaders will also participate in the mission.