Lesotho Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in lesotho, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Trade Agreements
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Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union of five States: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Under SACU, members enjoy a duty-free trade while \extending a common external tariff against imports from the rest of the world. As a member of SACU, Lesotho benefits from the free trade agreements SACU has with other countries or trade blocs. For more information about SACU, visit:  https://www.sacu.int/.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) Lesotho is a SADC member. SADC aspires to deepen regional integration and sustainable development through four successive phases: a SADC Free Trade Area (FTA), Customs Union, Common Market, and the Monetary Union. The SADC FTA was fully implemented in 2012 within twelve SADC Member States, when the maximum tariff liberalization was completed. Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Seychelles remain outside the FTA.  For more information about SADC, 

African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - Lesotho benefits from AGOA, a unilateral and non-reciprocal program that provides African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for more than 6,400 products.
For more information on AGOA visit: https://agoa.info/

SACU- Trade, Investment, and Development COOPERATIVE Agreement (TIDCA) – SACU which Lesotho is a member of has a trade agreement with the United States which offers a platform for consultations on trade, custom procedures, and technical barriers to trade and investment promotion.  

Cotonou Agreement - Lesotho is part of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) – European Union (EU) Partnership Agreement, which grants non-reciprocal preferential access to the EU market for some ACP products. The country is classified as a least developed country under the Cotonou Agreement and its status is enhanced by the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative. Under this initiative, Lesotho enjoys quota- and duty-free access to the EU market for everything except arms. In addition, Lesotho has recently initiated an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with EU which will give it significantly improved access to the EU. Lesotho is the first least developed country to sign a free trade agreement with European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which enhances trade relations between Lesotho and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – Lesotho ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area declaration. AfCFTA main objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of businesspersons and investments, to pave the way for the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union.  For more information of AfCFTA please visit: HTTPs://au.int

Bilateral Agreements- Lesotho has a bilateral investment protection agreement with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. The agreements are posted in full on the following website:  
https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/countries/117/lesotho  

For more information on trade agreements, contact:

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Business Development and Tourism.
P.O.Box 747,
Maseru, Lesotho
Tel: (266) 2232 4939
Fax: (266) 2231 0644
Website: http://www.trade.gov.ls/