The correct answer is: "impose a penalty on a certain country or group of countries".
Economic and trade sanctions are common mechanisms in international affairs. They are imposed by a country, like the US, and they consist on setting a penalty on imported products from one or more other nations.
Sanctions aim to force the punished nations to change their behaviour or policies on a certain issue, by limiting their ability to trade with the nation or group of nations that has(have) imposed the sanction and, in turn, they negatively influence their economic growth opportunities.
<em>For example, the US imposes a sanction aiming to force a country to respect human rights by abolishing child labor. </em>