'Math makes no sense at all': #Lesotho, one of Africa's poorest nations, hit with 50% US tariff Entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand on Thursday called out the United States' newly announced 50% tariff on Lesotho, describing it as a glaring example of the “economic incoherence” behind former President Donald Trump's so-called reciprocal tariff regime. "To illustrate just how nonsensically these tariffs were calculated, take the example of Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in Africa with just $2.4 billion in annual GDP, which is being struck with a 50% tariff rate under the Trump plan, the highest rate among all countries on the list,” Bertrand said in a detailed post on X. Lesotho is part of the Southern African Customs Union #SACU along with #SouthAfrica, #Namibia, #Eswatini, and #Botswana. All five countries apply a common external tariff structure, yet they have received vastly different tariff rates from the US—Lesotho at 50%, South Africa at 30%, Namibia at 21%, Botswana at 37%, and Eswatini just 10%. Bertrand argued that the disparity proves the tariffs are not calculated based on actual trade policies but rather on a "simplistic and economically senseless formula." According to him, the US appears to have used the bilateral trade deficit—specifically, the difference between US imports and exports—divided by the country's exports to determine a notional "tariff" and then applied half that number in the name of reciprocity. #USTariffs @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk