The American Dehydrated Onion and Garlic Association (ADOGA)

The Government Affairs practice, working together with the U.S. dehydrated onion and garlic industry in California, has succeeded in convincing the federal government trade establishment (the International Trade Administration, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and the U.S. Trade Representative) that, due to their import sensitivity, these two products merit the continued enforcement of what are very limited domestic protections from imports.

With little demand elasticity and a very small profit margin, dehydrated onion and garlic have been, and continue to be, extremely vulnerable to imports from China where garlic is ubiquitous and costs of production as we know them in our market economy don’t exist. Ball Janik LLP has worked with this niche industry to convince government trade leaders that duty-free trade is not, in all cases, fair trade. To that end, even in a period when import duties were considered the bane of all free trade, the U.S. tariffs on imported dehydrated onion and garlic have been maintained because this industry, with the help of our Government Affairs professionals, has made the economic case that fairness demands tariff protection against Chinese imports.

While hundreds of U.S. import tariffs have been completely eliminated, the dehydrated onion and garlic tariffs have been reduced only twice since the 1930s because of the dedication of ADOGA and its understanding of the importance of persistent contact with, and education of, federal decision-makers. Without involvement and education at the federal level, these tariffs would have been eliminated in the 1994 Uruguay Round negotiations, and with them would have gone the domestic industry. The industry survives because of its inexhaustible efforts with the federal government.