Lesotho scrambled to put together a delegation on Friday to head to Washington to engage with the United States on tariffs that risk wiping out nearly half of its exports, its trade minister said, in what could be a death blow to its economy.

Lesotho, which Trump had ridiculed in March as a country "nobody has ever heard of", is a poor country with a GDP of just over $2 billion.

The US has a big trade deficit with Lesotho, which sells textiles – including jeans – and diamonds to America. The 50% rate for Lesotho was part of what Trump described as "reciprocal tariffs" imposed on imports from dozens of countries,