Rachel Stockton is an Associate of Supply Chain Partners and a senior customs and international trade consultant with over 25 years of experience advising UK MSMEs and multinational businesses on customs compliance, import and export operations, border processes, and trade facilitation across complex global supply chains.  She combines deep technical expertise with practical, commercially grounded advice, cutting through regulatory complexity to deliver solutions that protect businesses, reduce cost, and keep goods moving.

Rachel’s foundations were built in-house at Frasers Group (Sports Direct), where as Head of Customs, VAT and Logistics she operated at the sharp end of one of the UK’s most complex global retail supply chains, managing global import and export compliance, tariff classification, duty management and customs operations at scale.  This grounding gives her something that distinguishes her from many in the field: she has sat on the client side, understands what businesses actually need to function, and knows how to make compliance work in practice rather than just in theory.

In February 2019, Rachel founded CIE Services Ltd, a specialist customs and international trade consultancy based in Lincolnshire.  Her technical expertise covers the full breadth of the discipline: tariff classification and commodity coding, customs valuation, rules of origin and preferential trade agreements, duty optimisation, and the complete range of customs special procedures – inward and outward processing, customs warehousing, temporary admission and end-use relief, having recently successfully bonded the warehousing facilities of a major UK retailer.  She advises on AEO accreditation and supply chain security, export controls including military and dual-use goods, F680 applications, SPIRE and LITE licensing and ECJU compliance, HMRC customs audits and compliance reviews, customs seizures and appeals, and UK, EU and Rest of World border processes.  She also supports team mentoring, training and capability building, helping organisations develop lasting internal competence.

A highlight of Rachel’s recent work has been her appointment to produce a series of eight trade guidance videos and accompanying guides for a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded project covering the UK-Ghana Trade Partnership Agreement.  Working with policy officials from the Department for Business and Trade and trade specialists on both sides, she developed A-series content for UK exporters trading with Ghana and B-series content for Ghanaian exporters to the UK, covering rules of origin, EUR.1 movement certificates, customs procedures and preferential trade in accessible, practical detail.  The project reflects both the breadth of her technical knowledge and her ability to communicate complex trade topics clearly to a wide audience.

Across her client base, Rachel has supported businesses with export and import structuring, preferential origin compliance, landed cost reduction and seamless post-Brexit EU trade, most recently advising on the implications of the UK-India CETA.  She has advised trade associations and SME consortiums on customs digitalisation, the NI Protocol and Windsor Framework, UKIMS and ICS2, and supported exporters in using trade agreements to gain competitive advantage, including Authorised Exporter applications.  From 2019 to 2023 she also served as Director of Special Projects at the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade, acting as customs advisor to the Trader Support Service during its creation with Fujitsu Ltd.  She continues to deliver technical training on behalf of multiple Chamber of Commerce entities and is a certified ICC Incoterms 2020 Trainer.

Rachel holds the Diploma in World Customs Compliance and Regulations, the Diploma in International Trade and the ICC Incoterms 2020 Trainer certification and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade (FCIEx).