Anonymous

About

About
I've spent four decades making global customs simple and the last decade convincing businesses that simple doesn't mean easy.

My career has taken me from customs brokerage in South Africa to representing Angola at the WCO Technical Committee on Customs Valuation in Brussels, through 14 years as Director of VAT & Customs for Lear Corporation across Asia Pacific, and most recently as a senior adviser at KPMG China and PwC China during the height of the US-China trade war. I now run a specialist UK customs and trade compliance practice through International Trade Matters Ltd, advising businesses across the EU, UK, and Asia on the compliance challenges that matter most.

What I've learned across those four decades: customs compliance fails at the governance layer, not the technical one. Companies invest in technology, hire brokers, and train staff but when the post-clearance audit arrives, the exposure almost always traces back to a disconnect between commercial arrangements and customs declarations, or a board that treated compliance as a back-office function until it became a crisis.

My practice focuses on three areas where that gap most often bites:

Transfer pricing and customs valuation the intersection that most TP advisers and customs teams still handle in isolation, and where the financial exposure is greatest. I participated in the WCO's technical committee work on this issue for six years and currently deliver practitioner training on WCO Case Studies 14.1–14.4.

E-commerce and platform trade compliance advising platform operators and digital marketplace businesses on UK and EU regulatory frameworks, including the 2026 platform importer-of-record liability shift and the pathway to AEO-C and Centralised Clearance.

SME compliance system-building helping growing businesses move from reactive crisis management to a structured, auditable trade compliance program anchored to international governance standards.

I'm a regular speaker and webinar host on customs valuation, anti-dumping, rules of origin, and supply chain compliance. If you're navigating a customs challenge or trying to build the systems to avoid one I offer a complimentary 30-minute consultation. Connect or message me directly.