The World Trade Organization logo is seen at the entrance of the WTO headquarters in Geneva. (Reuters)
Argentina has lost its appeal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the body's ruling that it had broken global trade rules in a dispute with its EU, US and Japanese partners, a WTO decision published today said.
Argentina had appealed the ruling by the WTO's trade watchdog last September finding fault with Buenos Aires' rules which set unfair requirements on goods exported by partners including the United States, the European Union and Japan.
In its appeal decision, the WTO upheld the earlier ruling and ordered Argentina to conform with international trade rules.
In 2013, the WTO had set up a panel of independent trade and legal experts to consider the complaints filed by Washington, Brussels and Tokyo.
In their sights were import licencing rules, which among other things require firms eager to export to the country to import Argentinian goods in exchange.
One of the most well-known examples was German carmaker Porsche, which was forced to commit to purchasing Argentinian wine and olive oil in order to get roughly 100 of its cars into the South American country.
The Geneva-based WTO oversees global trade accords in an effort to provide its 160 member economies with a level playing field.
Wrangling over import rules is common at the WTO and it can take years for a WTO dispute settlement process to wrap up due to appeals and counter-appeals and compliance assessments.