The United States is trying to exert pressure on European creditors of the Nord Stream 2 project, threatening to impose retroactive sanctions on them. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that Shell, Engie, Uniper, Wintershall and OMV should leave immediately or otherwise all their assets in America will be frozen. The new threats come amid Gazprom’s revved-up efforts to complete the project. However, it still remains unclear how the companies, which allocated 4.7 bln euro for Nord Stream 2 in loans, could avoid sanctions, Kommersant business daily writes. Source Tass
The European Union is backing former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to head the World Trade Organization, sending a signal of trust in Africa, an EU official said on Monday.
Okonjo-Iweala and South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee are vying to be the first female leader in the WTO’s 25-year history, replacing Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, who quit a year earlier than expected at the end of August. Source Reuters
The US State Department on Oct. 20 widened the scope of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and warned companies involved in the final installation that they face sanctions if they do not wind down activities within 30 days. Source Spglobal
Whether or not S&P Global Ratings downgrades Italian debt this week is a coin toss, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
“We think it’s a 50-50 call as both an unchanged outlook as well as a downgrade could be justified,” wrote Ioannis Sokos, a strategist at Deutsche, citing S&P’s outlook criteria from April. Source Bloomberg
