The company is part of the increased Chinese presence in the Nova Scotia lobster industry over the past decade. The company pleaded guilty to one charge under the Customs Act and one under the Safe Food For Canadians Act.Ītlantic ChiCan has not committed any violations since, according to the statement of facts. "My client is acknowledging that the company was in breach of a regulation and is intent on ensuring that all regulations are adhered to in the future," Goldberg told CBC News after the case.Ĭharges against Shang Long He were withdrawn in court. Those in charge of the plant have left or were fired, consultants were brought in for spot audits and the company no longer imports U.S. Owners were unaware, lawyer saysĪtlantic ChiCan lawyer Victor Goldberg said the Chinese owners were unaware of what was going on. 30, 2019, always indicating Canada as the country of origin.Ītlantic ChiCan temporarily lost honour-system privileges, "resulting in significant costs accrued" to the company, according to the joint statement. A check of customs declarations showed Atlantic ChiCan exported lobster 286 times between June 1 and Sept. The findings were passed on to the Canada Border Services Agency, which obtained a search warrant. 24, 2019, inspection at Clark's Harbour, on Cape Sable Island. The Atlantic ChiCan ruse was detected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency during a Sept. They rely on that to determine what the country of origin is for the products being shipped," Kruger said.Ĭanadian food traceability and customs certificates are based on an "honour system" that allows the exporter to fill out country of origin in documents. "Our international trading partners rely on that reporting system. Whatever the motivation, Kruger said the deception undermined the integrity of Canadian customs and food traceability commitments. "The evidence that we did have, including statements given by plant staff, was they were trying to satisfy insatiable market demand from their Asian customers, in particular China, and that is why they were sourcing American lobster." Integrity undermined We didn't have any evidence that that was the motivation behind ChiCan's actions," he said. "In this case, a result of that would have been that the Chinese would have not applied customs tariffs to that shipment. At the time, the Trump administration and China were embroiled in a trade war, and Maine lobster paid a 49 per cent tariff entering China.įederal Crown prosecutor Max Kruger said tariff avoidance was an outcome, but there was no proof that it was behind the scheme. The lobster was sent from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Atlantic ChiCan has been fined $50,000 for shipping American lobsters to China and claiming they came from Canada.Ī Chinese-owned lobster company in Nova Scotia has been fined $50,000 for illegally shipping American lobsters primarily to China and claiming it came from Canada.Ītlantic ChiCan pleaded guilty Thursday in provincial court in Dartmouth, N.S., to two counts related to the mislabelling.īetween May and October 2019, the big holding facility on Cape Sable Island in southwest Nova Scotia imported 63,000 pounds of live lobster from the United States and exported it as product of Canada, according to an agreed statement of facts presented in court.