AUSTRALIAN dairy farmers are under attack after the European Commission launched a barrage of export subsidies on to the world market last week, ranging from $400 to $1000 a tonne.

EU exporters can claim the money back on produce they export to the world, a move Australian and New Zealand dairy analysts say undermines any hope of a milk-price recovery.

But it's only the first in what Australia's trade and agriculture ministers fear could be a volley of subsidies from the EU and other developed nations.

Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean and Agriculture Minister Tony Burke have written to EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton warning of the devastating effect export subsidies will have on the depressed global dairy market.

"Export subsidies will likely drive international dairy prices even lower and . . . prolong the current downturn," the Australian ministers said.

"Not only will it impact on dairy producers in countries such as Australia and including many developing countries which trade at world prices, it may also trigger the re-introduction of similar subsidies in other major dairy producing countries."

Australian Dairy Farmers president Allan Burgess said he feared the US would follow the EU's lead and bolster its support measures, further distorting the global marketplace.

"We know US farmers are asking for more dairy produce to be sold to the (government-run) Commodity Credit Corporation and under the Dairy Export Incentive Program," Mr Burgess said.

Earlier this month, the US National Milk Producers Association wrote to their Department of Agriculture calling for more subsidies.

In a letter dated January 9 to then USDA secretary Ed Schafer, the NMPA president Jerry Kozac said: "I write to you on behalf of tens of thousands of struggling dairy producers across this country to offer some ways that the USDA could help".

The NMPA called for the CCC's floor-price scheme to be expanded and the sale of more US dairy produce as "aid" to the world's poor via the Dairy Export Incentive Program.

The EU's decision follows Commissioner Fischer Boel's announcement on January 19 that subsidies were needed because "our exporters are no longer able to compete".

But rather than winding back EU milk production, the Commissioner has forged ahead with exporting a subsidised surplus.

The EU supplies a third of the world's dairy exports but blocks imports, using some of the world's highest trade barriers.

Australian dairy processors face EU tariffs of $3792 a tonne on butter, $2508/tonne on skim milk powder and $3500/tonne on cheese imports.

These tariffs, on top of the landed price, make it almost impossible for Australian exporters to enter EU markets.

Australia applies no tariffs to European dairy imports.

But the EU is not the only protectionist economy.

Australia has some access to the US via a 35,000-tonne quota, but above-quota imports face tariffs ranging from $1330 a tonne on skim milk powder to $2370 a tonne on butter.

Even China imposes import tariffs of 10-15 per cent on Australian dairy imports.