UPSC 1998: Assertion (A): The United States of America has threatened to ask the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to apply sanctions against the developing countries for the no observance of ILO conventions. Reason (R): The United States of America itself has adopted and implemented those ILO conventions.

Assertion (A) is supported by President Bill Clinton’s statement during the December 1999 WTO Seattle Ministerial that he would ‘ultimately’ favour sanctions under WTO rules against countries that violated core labour standards, i.e., ILO conventions. ([washingtonpost.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/12/03/clintons-remarks-on-sanctions-open-rift/c90f0e7c-fa99-4000-a07a-7c0fe58141f4/?utm_source=openai)) Reason (R) is false because, at that time, the United States had ratified only two of the then-seven (now eight) fundamental ILO conventions—C105 (Abolition of Forced Labour) and, in December 1999, C182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour). The United States had not ratified key conventions on freedom of association (C87), collective bargaining (C98), minimum age (C138), discrimination (C100, C111), etc. ([normlex.ilo.org](https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB%3A11200%3A0%3A%3ANO%3A%3AP11200_INSTRUMENT_SORT%2CP11200_COUNTRY_ID%3A2%2C102871&utm_source=openai)) Hence A is true but R is false, so option (c) is correct.