Dairy products are generally more expensive in Canada due to “restrictions by the country’s dairy board,” as well as “tight controls on US imports of cheaper cheese.” Three Canadians living in southern Ontario used this as motivation to smuggle cheese and other dairy products from the United States of America and bring them into Canada. Buying large quantities at a time, these smugglers illegally transported the cheese across the border without declaring or paying duty on the goods. Exceeding the maximum of CAD $20 or 20kg of cheese legally allowed to be imported at one time to be considered “duty free,” the smugglers were risking civil penalties that can charge up to 245.5% of the original value of the cheese. But while this operation clearly had its risks, it also had its benefits. The accused were found to have made a profit of just over CAD $165 000 just from the dairy products. The business ethics followed by these three Canadians were closely related to Friedman’s ethics that roughly translate to: do whatever you have to in your business to make money. These smugglers were simply doing what any other business strives to do. Make money. The differentiating factor in this case however, is the illegitimacy of the business.

Works Cited:

BBC News. BBC, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19751695>.