Geneva - A World Trade Organization appellate court has ruled against the United States over its measures against imports deemed unfairly priced, a report released Tuesday showed.

Washington failed to convince the appellate body of the legality of its anti-dumping procedures - used to protect against imports priced cheaper than in the home market - and lost on every count.

Japan had instigated the case, saying the "zeroing" method the US used to calculate duties was not in compliance with WTO rules, as it disregarded certain comparison results when doing the math.

WTO bodies have previously rejected the method in other cases.

The European Union, China, India and others were third parties to Tokyo's complaint.

Once the ruling is confirmed by the WTO, Japan can begin to seek trade sanctions against the US.(dpa)