VANCOUVER — A Burnaby businessman has been fined $25,000 for sneaking cheese across the border at the Pacific Highway crossing in Surrey.
That's where the Canada Border Services Agency intercepted two shipments from the USA and found cheese whereas only grapes and grape juice were reported.
Manuel De Oliveira owns a Burnaby company called Beira Mar, which imports cheese and other products mostly from Portugal.
Several days into what was set to be a 20-day trial in B.C. Supreme Court, with Justice Jennifer Duncan presiding, De Oliveira pleaded guilty to willful or attempted evasion of duties under the Customs Act, and importing or attempting to import a dairy product not accompanied by an import declaration, contrary to the Canada Agricultural Products Act.
Canada, as it were, takes its cheese regulations very seriously to avoid surplus. Imported cheese is subject to a quota system governed by the Department of Foreign Affairs that enables importers to obtain permits to bring in a set amount at a preferentially low duty rate. Imports above that level, however, are subject to a duty rate of 245.5 per cent.
"Importers who circumvent the quota system disrupt the dairy industry supply management system," Duncan noted in her reasons for decision.
The court heard that between 2005 and 2010 De Oliveira was permitted to import 4,300 kilograms of cheese each year. In that time, he imported 737 shipments of goods into Canada and 23 of those were cheese. On 10 occasions, Duncan noted, Beira Mar imported cheese "and either failed to report it entirely and had no permit or import declaration, or underreported the amount of cheese contained in a shipment.
"There were five shipments in which he failed to report the cheese at all," she noted. The total amount imported that wasn’t reported was 12,899 kilograms, worth $132,539 U.S.
All told, $461,917 in duty was evaded.
“At the time Mr. De Oliveira committed these offences, he was voluntarily participating in a system to protect the Canadian cheese industry and, by flouting it, he unfairly competed with people who followed the rules,†Duncan noted. “He also removed the ability of health inspectors to ensure the cheese he was importing met health standards.â€
tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com