WASHINGTON — Canadian milk has stopped flowing into the United States, at least for now, following a round of complaints from U.S. dairy organizations and a lawsuit in Ontario.

The federal government reported that imports of fluid milk, cream and related products from Canada have slowed to a trickle this year. Most of the decline comes from a halt to fluid milk imports since February, the National Milk Producers Federation said.

Falling imports may quell complaints from dairy farmer groups that incoming milk undercuts their market and violates trade agreements between the two countries. New York has been a destination for such milk in the past as cheese plants looked for cheaper sources of their main ingredient.

"Imports of fluid milk have stopped, hopefully permanently," the NMPF declared in its monthly newsletter.

Import statistics from the federal government show that imports tailed off this year, after totaling $6.6 million worth of milk and cream in 2007 and $5.7 million in 2006. The NMPF, citing the U.S. Census Bureau, also reported that no fluid milk has been imported from Canada since February.

The absence of Canadian milk coincides with an Ontario court ruling in February that Canadian farmers could no longer sell raw milk to U.S. plants, finding that the practice violates the country's quota system. The ruling affected only a handful of farmers but squelched a practice that once involved many more and led to ever-louder complaints from U.S. farmers.

In 1999, the federal milk market administrator for the Northeast, Ronald C. Pearce, dismissed the complaints, saying farmers were seeing "phantom milk trucks."

The NMPF, in a press release, said it supports a new free trade agreement with Canada that would allow the free flow of all dairy products between the countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement left many restrictions in place.

Just as U.S. farmers oppose imports of raw milk, Canada has resisted policies that would allow more U.S. milk to flow north, citing the United States' comparatively huge milk supply that could overwhelm that country's farmers.