Escalating rhetoric is about to turn into economic actions as Bloomberg reports Washington has prepared a list of Turkish entities and individuals that it will target should it decide to impose sanctions on Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government for imprisoning U.S. citizens and employees of its diplomatic mission, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The Lira collapsed to record lows… at 4.9979/USD, ominously near the psychologically-critical 5.00 level.
Bloomberg adds that while negotiations to release one of the people, evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson, are ongoing, the preparation of the so-called “designation packages” shows how close the U.S. has come to imposing unprecedented penalties against a NATO ally.
Turkey’s ETF is also tumbling…
Interestingly, the sanctions are being prepared under the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016, which allows the U.S. government to target individuals, companies or other entities involved in corruption or human-rights abuses anywhere in the world. Sanctions under the act allow for the seizure of assets in the U.S., travel bans and prohibitions on doing business with U.S. entities.
These is the same method of sanctioning that has been used to target Putin’s closest allies.
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