After losing her job in October, Matokelo Masenkane wakes up early every day to stand outside textile factory gates in Lesotho, hoping to be picked for casual work.
Most days, nothing comes. “It is even more painful taking the already little food from the house to eat while you queue, when you could have … shared it with your kids,” said the 36-year-old mother of three.
Masenkane was laid off after Lesotho lost tariff-free access to the U.S. market for garments, a key lifeline for the country’s economy, according to Reuters.
Lesotho has long benefited from preferential trade access to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), but the agreement expired in September, putting thousands of jobs at risk.
That uncertainty eased slightly this week when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an extension of AGOA through December 31, 2026.
The law, first enacted in 2000, allows eligible sub-Saharan African countries to export more than 1,800 products to the United States duty-free.
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The extension followed months of concern, especially after Trump imposed steep tariffs on countries around the world on what he called “liberation day” on April 2.
The expiry of AGOA had threatened hundreds of thousands of African jobs. For Lesotho, the most U.S.-dependent exporter on the continent, the extension brought relief, even though it only postpones the bigger question of what happens next.
“I’m optimistic that we will get something long term,” Lesotho’s Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told Reuters in an interview at his office. “The one-year extension … is not a conducive timeline for our businesses.”
Textiles are Lesotho’s biggest export, and garment shipments to the United States under AGOA account for about a tenth of the country’s roughly $2 billion gross domestic product.
Earlier this year, Lesotho was hit with a 50% U.S. tariff, the highest imposed under Trump’s new measures, before it was later reduced to 15 percent.
Even at that level, the tariff remains a heavy burden for a country that relies on U.S. consumers buying its clothing.
Total U.S. goods and services trade with Lesotho reached $276 million in 2024.
“We have to start working now to have the U.S. provide us with a framework of a proper trade policy for Africa,” Shelile said.
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Image Credit: Trendsnafrica.com
