The nation that the Trump administration slapped with the heftiest tariff this week is a small, rural, landlocked nation in southern Africa that’s among the many world’s poorest.

Lesotho, which makes denim that goes into American-branded denims, was hit with a 50 p.c tariff. It was amongst a number of lower-income international locations on the continent that had been shocked by levies excessive above the minimal 10 p.c imposed on almost all of America’s buying and selling companions. Madagascar, the place three-quarters of the inhabitants lives in poverty, now will likely be met with a 47 p.c tariff when its attire, vanilla and different exports enter the US.

Merchandise from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Libya and Mauritius all now have tariffs above 30 p.c, as does South Africa, which has come underneath explicit assault by the Trump administration.

Mr. Trump has justified the across-the-board tariffs by declaring that the world buying and selling system has performed the US for a chump who picked up the tab for the world’s moochers.

However Lesotho is hardly an enormous participant in world commerce: It imported lower than $3 million in goods from the US and exported $240 million there final yr.

The tariffs come as a lot of the African continent is already reeling. Simply weeks in the past, the Trump administration ended billions of {dollars} in support to Africa that undergirded many international locations’ well being care techniques and catastrophe aid efforts.

On the identical time, governments throughout the continent are dealing with a overseas debt load that exceeds $1.1 trillion. Many are spending extra on repaying their loans than on well being care or schooling.

For essentially the most half, manufactured exports from Africa to the US are minuscule. However to international locations like Lesotho, the impression of tariffs is gigantic. Exports of denim and diamonds make up greater than a tenth of the nation’s gross home product.

It will “devastate the economic system,” stated Jacques Nel, head of Africa Macro at Oxford Economics, a analysis agency. Lesotho is already a poor nation. It has a inhabitants of two million and its whole nationwide output is about $2 billion a yr, with an annual per capita revenue of $975.

“This has nothing to do with precise tariffs,” Mr. Nel stated. “They will’t import quite a bit from the U.S., as a result of they don’t have some huge cash.”

The textile business is Lesotho’s largest non-public employer and produces its number-one export. The sector was nurtured after the US passed the African Growth and Opportunity Act in 2000. Designed to spice up manufacturing throughout the continent, the legislation eliminated most duties on items from sub-Saharan Africa. That legislation expires later this yr, though Mr. Trump successfully ended it this week.

Lesotho’s factories have made clothes — significantly denim — for producers like Levi’s and Wrangler. And though Mr. Trump just lately referred to as Lesotho a rustic that “no person has ever heard of,” his personal Trump-branded Greg Norman golf shirts characteristic labels that say “Made in Lesotho.”

Lesotho’s commerce minister, Mokhethi Shelile, stated the nation has 11 factories that make use of 12,000 employees. Seventy p.c of what they produce is exported to the US. “We’re a small economic system,” Mr. Shelile stated. “We simply have to talk to the U.S. administration as a result of the tariff is just not primarily based on details.”

Different prime exporters of textiles in Africa, like Madagascar (47 p.c tariff) and Kenya (10 p.c), will even really feel the sting.

As a result of South Africa does extra commerce with the US, exporting vehicles, agricultural items and extra, will probably be most affected, stated Thea Fourie at S&P World Market Intelligence.

African nations whose main exports are vitality or sure essential minerals will likely be spared as a result of the administration has exempted these gadgets from tariffs.

Whereas the US is imposing tariffs on the comparatively small quantity of products from Africa — simply $39 billion value final yr — China has been making an attempt to encourage commerce. It eradicated all import duties on merchandise from 33 African international locations in December.

A much bigger concern is the knock-on results that the tariffs are anticipated to have on the worldwide economic system. The outlook has dimmed over the previous week and analysts expect slower progress.

“Even African international locations not going through very excessive tariffs are going to be struggling,” stated Jayati Ghosh, an economist on the College of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As is the case with any world downturn, the poorest international locations will really feel the sharpest results. Worsening financial prospects might sluggish commerce with different companions like China and Europe. It additionally discourages buyers.

If inflation prompts central banks to lift rates of interest, African international locations with massive debt burdens are in for a double whammy. Their mortgage funds — most of that are priced in {dollars} — will enhance on the identical time that their capability to earn overseas alternate by exports is crippled.

Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, the president and chief govt of the African Heart for Financial Transformation, stated the one means ahead is to develop regional commerce networks throughout the continent, a long-running objective.

The continent has to search for “alternatives to construct intra-African commerce,” she stated.

Zimasa Matiwane contributed reporting from Lesotho.