Smoked salmon looks “raw” largely because it is raw. It has never been heated.

Smoking the fish does indeed give a very different flavour to non-smoked fillet. That shouldn’t be any great surprise.

Why is it safe? Well good quality raw salmon is also safe (see sushi). But the smoking does have an effect of preserving the fish and making it less of an environment where bacteria would thrive.

Probably nothing.

You would need an international law expert to be sure of the exact consequences, but if you have failed to pay a court ordered file then you would probably be unable to travel to an EU country or a country with an extradition treaty. You would certainly face issues if you ever wanted to expand your business overseas.