GENEVA (REUTERS) - South Korea won the bulk of its appeal on Thursday (April 11) in a dispute at the World Trade Organisation over import bans and testing requirements it had imposed on Japanese seafood in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Last year, a WTO dispute panel supported Japan, saying South Korea was wrong to keep its initial trade restrictions in place.

But Thursday's ruling overturned several key points of that verdict, saying South Korea's measures were not overly restrictive and did not unfairly discriminate against Japan.

The appeal looked solely at the panel's interpretation of the WTO rules, without going into the facts about the levels of contaminants in Japanese food products or what the right level of consumer protection should be.

South Korea widened its initial ban on Japanese fishery imports in 2013 to cover all seafood from eight Japanese prefectures including Fukushima.

Japan launched its trade complaint at the WTO in 2015, arguing that radioactive levels were safe and that a number of other nations, including the United States and Australia, had lifted or eased Fukushima-related restrictions.

South Korea imported 10.9 billion yen (S$130 million) worth of Japanese seafood in the year to August 2013 before it broadened its restrictions.

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Those imports then fell to 8.4 billion yen the following year, according to the Japanese government.