The Korean Economic Institute of America (KEI) has thrown its weight behind Botswana amid a trade conflict that saw the United States impose steep and punitive tariffs on Botswana on April 4, 2025.
KEI, a powerful economic lobby based in the US and registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to represent South Korea’s commercial interests, weighed in with an economic assessment of the tariff impacts on American goods and the fairness of the US’s reciprocal tariffs. Their analysis highlighted Botswana as one of the developing economies hit hardest by the sweeping tariffs introduced during the Donald Trump administration.
Initially, the US slapped Botswana with a 37% tariff, while South Korea faced a 25% tariff on goods exported to the US – an unprecedented act of commercial brinkmanship. KEI noted that by April 3, 2025, it was clear the US Trade Representative (USTR) viewed these tariffs through the lens of the US trade balance, aiming to set “the tariff rates that would drive bilateral trade deficits to zero.”
“Several developing countries face high tariffs, for example, Botswana whose exports to the United States are almost exclusively diamonds will face 37 percent in reciprocal tariffs while effectively only imposing 2.03 percent tariffs on imports of US goods,” KEI stated. It added, “South Korea (at 25 percent) sits right in the middle — It is in a tougher spot than the United Kingdom and Singapore but it has it easier than China and Myanmar.”
A graphic included in KEI’s tariff reexamination case painted Botswana in red as the fifth hardest-hit country by US tariffs, following Vietnam, Myanmar, Madagascar, and Cambodia.
The report, part of KEI’s lobbying efforts in the US, emphasizes the need to understand the tariff landscape by comparing US tariffs imposed on these countries with the tariffs they levy on US imports. “To get a better sense of the variation in the magnitude of the tariff imbalance, one can take the difference between the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariff for a given country and the tariff rate levied on U.S exports by the country,” it explained.
While many countries scrambled to soften the economic blow through lobbying and direct negotiations, Botswana chose not to launch its own lobbying campaign. Instead, it opted for direct engagement with the US government, offering a proposal of concessions.
These high tariffs threatened to bleed Botswana’s economy dry, which depends heavily on diamond exports to the US market. The initial 37% duty, which included a 10% baseline tariff, was reduced to 15%, though the government maintained that this adjusted rate remained prohibitively high.
In July 2025, Botswana presented the Strategic Bilateral Engagement on US Reciprocal Tariffs, proposing a structured partnership that would give US companies first-mover advantage across three high-value geological zones. Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe reportedly shared this proposal with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick, in turn, assured that the USTR would provide a framework outlining specific US trade concerns for Botswana’s consideration.
Botswana’s proposal included plans for mining partnerships where US firms would supply technical expertise. It also suggested US investments across renewable energy, health, technology, and infrastructure sectors, facilitated by a one-stop service to streamline permits, licenses, and other authorizations.
Additionally, Botswana pledged to remove all non-tariff barriers in international trade, noting the process was already underway, and expressed willingness to adopt specific US standards upon request.
Funded by the South Korean government, KEI also operates as a Washington, DC-based think tank focused on economic, political, and security relations between the US and Korea.
Efforts to reach Botswana’s Minister of Minerals and Energy, Bogolo Kenewendo, and her representatives for comment were unsuccessful.