50% Tariff for Diamond Nation "Nobody has Heard of"
April 07, 25
(IDEX Online) - Lesotho, the tiny, enclaved nation within South Africa, has been hit with the highest of all Trump's tariffs - at 50 per cent.
In a comment to Congress last month the US President said it was a country "nobody has ever heard of" - but it still didn't escape his Liberation Day raft of reciprocal tariffs.
Lesotho, with a population just 2.3m and a GDP of about $2bn, relies heavily on exports to the US of the high-value diamonds, notably those produced at Letseng (jointly owned by Gem Diamonds and the Lesotho government) and Mothae (jointly owned, as of last June, by Mothae Diamonds and the Lesotho government).
The country's trade minister Mokhethi Shelile said: "We are a small economy. We just have to speak to the US administration because the tariff is not based on facts."
Lesotho, one of the world's poorest countries, exported $240m of goods to the US last year and imported less than $3m. The US calculates its tariffs based on deficits with its trading partners.
UK-based Gem Diamonds reported a 10 per cent increase in revenue in 2024 to $154.2m, largely driven by the sale of 13 +100-cts diamonds from its Letseng mine.
Pic shows a 212-carat diamond from Letseng.