Trump tariffs are a ‘disaster’ for world’s poorest countries

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new reciprocal tariffs are set to hit some of the world’s poorest nations the hardest, putting their labor-intensive export industries at risk and diminishing one of the U.

S.’s biggest economic advantages over rival China. Cambodia was slapped with Asia’s highest tariff rate of 49% in Trump’s levies announced Wednesday.



Garment manufacturing giant Bangladesh was hit with a 37% rate, while in Myanmar, where a devastating earthquake last week left more than 3,000 dead, the U.S. imposed a 45% duty.

The southern African nation of Lesotho received a 50% tariff, the highest of any country. "Oh, look at Cambodia, 97%,” Trump said at the White House, drawing laughter as he pointed to the levy the U.S.

is subjected to from the Southeast Asian nation. "They made a fortune with the United States of America.” The average Cambodian earns about $6.

65 a day, according to World Bank data, less than a fifth of the global average..