Tariff relief for Lesotho may have come too little too late.
While goods from the small southern African nation have started entering the United States duty-free following the expiration of President Donald Trump’s temporary 10 percent global tariff regime, widely seen as a stopgap after the Supreme Court struck down the “Liberation Day” tariffs in February, Lesotho’s former “reciprocal” 50 percent rate may have already taken a toll, insiders say.
“Things are not well in the country; the damage is already done,” said Solong Senohe, secretary-general of the United Textile Employees Union, or UNITE. “Working conditions are deteriorating as companies—especially those exporting to South Africa, which employ fewer workers than those exporting to the U.S. market—are taking advantage of the situation. Some workers are being forced to work unpaid overtime, and some are dismissed for being union members.”
Still not helping, Senohe said, is the volatile status of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the trade preference program that gave eligible sub-Saharan African countries, including Lesotho, duty-free access to the U.S. market for 25 years.
When AGOA was allowed to lapse last September, importers were left paying a modified 15 percent tariff rate. By then, however, the Lesotho government had already declared a national state of disaster, citing the economic shock after the initial 50 percent tariff threat prompted major U.S. clothing brands—including The Children’s Place, Levi Strauss & Co. and Wrangler—to pause, scale back or cancel future orders.
Congress’s retroactive extension of AGOA through Dec. 31 also did little to stabilize Lesotho’s garment sector, which accounts for more than half of the country’s manufactured exports and employed 54,000 people at its peak, because the narrow time window undercut the long-term planning global fashion supply chains require. The move was also largely moot: When the Trump administration enacted its flat 10 percent import surcharge under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act in February, less than a month after Congress’s green light, it also effectively nullified AGOA’s zero-tariff benefits.
“There are orders, but they are in small quantities,” said Lieketseng Leteka, project coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Region for IndustriALL Global Union and legal representative for the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho. “Buyers are hesitant to place orders in large quantities mainly because they are not certain what will take place in September regarding AGOA.”
Reduced shifts and temporary “no work, no pay” furloughs that began after suppliers ran out of backlog orders last June soon gave way to more permanent layoffs. Reports from labor groups and a Lesotho government survey confirmed that several major operations had ceased production altogether, including Tai Yuan Garments, a Kohl’s supplier that cut 500 jobs; TZICC Clothing Manufacturers, which produced clothing for JCPenney, Walmart and Costco, and shed 700 jobs; and Precious Garments, a manufacturer of Trump-branded golf shirts that laid off all 4,000 of its workers.
If conditions persist, Leteka said, up to 40,000 jobs in a country that Trump said “nobody has ever heard of” in his 2025 joint address to Congress could vanish for good.
That uncertainty was echoed by Michael Zetts, Levi’s head of global policy and advocacy, who said that renewing AGOA for the “longest possible period” would provide the “necessary certainty and stability” for companies like his to continue making significant investments and purchasing commitments.
“AGOA’s apparel incentives not only encourage greater investment in SSA but also support retail, distribution and logistics jobs in the U.S.—as well as advance our commitment to offer quality, affordable clothes to American consumers,” he wrote in response to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s request for public comment on modernizing AGOA earlier this year. “By renewing AGOA and maintaining its vital provisions, we can ensure continued prosperity and strengthen the economic ties between the U.S. and African nations.”
A Levi’s spokesperson previously told Sourcing Journal that its sourcing plans in Lesotho remained “unchanged.”
The government of Lesotho was more sanguine Wednesday, saying in a statement that the country had been excluded from the latest round of Section 301 tariffs related to forced labor concerns, preserving export access, including under AGOA’s third-country fabric provision, which allows eligible countries to export clothing duty-free to the United States even when the fabric is sourced from outside Africa.
“This provides local manufacturers with a valuable competitive advantage over a number of international competitors facing substantially higher tariff rates,” it said. “The development strengthens Lesotho’s position as a preferred destination for export-oriented manufacturing and trade.”
But that optimism stood in contrast to the relative silence from U.S. retailers a month ago, when the Business and Human Rights Centre wrote to six of them—Costco, Fabletics, JCPenney, Perry Ellis, Reebok and Walmart—to ask about factory layoffs amid the AGOA and tariff turmoil. Only JCPenney replied, and it did not directly address the issue.
“Respect for workers and human rights remains a core expectation within our responsible sourcing program,” it said. “We recognize the importance of responsible purchasing practices and continued dialogue among brands, suppliers, worker representatives, civil society organizations and policymakers to address the systemic challenges affecting workers and the long-term sustainability of apparel manufacturing in the region.”
Even so, Leteka wasn’t moved by the limited reassurance. “Workers are trying to cope,” she said. “But it is not the best.”
