Mark Rowbotham

International Consultant

Mark Rowbotham is an International Consultant, Trainer and writer in Customs and VAT Compliance issues, as well as other areas including International Trade, Excise, Export Controls, Oil & Gas Offshore and Marine issues. He has spent a considerable length of time working in both the Government, Commercial and Academic sectors. He deals primarily with Compliance, Control and Procedural issues in Customs, Excise and VAT, and is a trainer in these issues as well as International Trade, Supply Chain Logistics, Finance and Risk Management courses.

He was originally an Officer in HM Customs & Excise, dealing with Import and Export Controls on maritime freight traffic into and out of UK Ports, and became an independent consultant and trainer in the late 1990s.

He speaks 5 European languages, and is graduated in Languages (Portuguese) and Export Management, as well as complete fluency in French and Portuguese. He has a good working knowledge of both Spanish and German. He also gained a Masters’ Degree in International Relations and Political Economy in 1995. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK), and is a member of their Freight Forwarding, Ports and Maritime Forums.

He has written extensively on the subjects of Customs, International Supply Chain and Marine Compliance issues for a wide variety of International Trade and Logistics publications and journals, and has had two books published, the first in 2008 entitled “Introduction to Marine Cargo Management”, Second Edition published 2015, and the second in 2011 entitled “Marine Reporting & Maritime Territorial Controls”. He has been a part-time lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University on the Maritime Studies Programme, and also works with training organisations on several course programmes, especially SETYM International, based in Montréal, Canada.

He also advises several Chambers of Commerce in the UK on Customs and International Trade issues, frequently delivering advice, training courses and seminars on these subjects. He is an accredited trainer for the British Chambers of Commerce, and has also been an adviser to UK Trade & Investment (now DIT) on Customs Procedures pertaining to trade with the Americas, as well as also being an adviser to BP and SONILS Angola, the Ghana, Kenya and Uganda Revenue Authorities, and the Nigerian Maritime Organisation NIMASA. His work with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) extends over several years, and has led to far-reaching results in the management and administration of various areas of the GRA, especially in its Risk Management section and the work it undertakes to reduce risk in specific areas of the Revenue, especially in Customs and frontier controls.