THE US has stopped handing out dairy export subsidies but won't rule out further support during 2009-10.
That's the response Australia is getting to calls for the US to follow the EU and publicly scuttle export subsidies.
Australian officials last week made direct representations to the Office of the US Trade Representative and the US Department of Agriculture.
And Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean will this week directly lobby US Trade Representative Ron Kirk during world trade discussions in Geneva.
US officials have emphasised that no bids for support under the Dairy Export Incentive Program, activated in May, have been accepted since the end of October.
But there has been no commitment to roll back the subsidy allocation of up to $150 million for up to 92,000 tonnes of dairy exports for 2009-10 announced in June.
But Australian Dairy Farmers president Wes Judd said the US should show "good faith" by rolling back its subsidy allocation.
The EU, which activated its dairy subsidies in January in the face of plunging global prices, recently set its one remaining subsidy rate - for butter and butter fat - at zero, citing an improving world market.
