Maldives tightens import rules for single-use plastic film and sheets

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has amended the country’s goods export, import and re-export regulation to place single-use plastic film, sheet and tube rolls inside a restricted-items clause, through regulation 2026/R-93. The measure is published as the fifth amendment to regulation 2012/R-34, in the Government of Maldives gazette of 9 November 2026 (Volume 55, Number 166, corresponding to 29 Jumada al-Ula 1448). Under its own terms, the amendment took effect from the date the regulation was published in the gazette.

Two operative provisions

The amendment is a short instrument with two numbered provisions. The first replaces the wording of article 30, clause (ޅ), sub-clause (2) of the 2012 regulation, rewriting the list of articles that the clause covers. The second sets the entry into force: the regulation applies from the date of its publication in the Government of Maldives gazette, which is 9 November 2026.

The amended sub-clause, as printed, covers:

• single-use or disposable plastic film;
• plastic sheet;
• plastic tube rolls.

The text is published in Dhivehi in section I of the gazette, and is signed from the ministry’s offices in Malé, Republic of Maldives.

Background: a phase-out already under way

The change is the fifth time the 2012 goods export, import and re-export regulation has been amended since it was issued, and it extends a line of policy work on single-use plastics already visible in the gazette. On 19 September 2026 the gazette (Number 149, Volume 55) published decision 2026/15, dealing with the determination of the list of single-use plastic items and the shift to environmentally safer alternatives.

By moving plastic film, sheet and tube rolls into the amended clause of 2012/R-34, the ministry links the trade regime — which governs what may be brought into, sent out of and re-exported from the country — to that wider plastics policy, rather than leaving it solely as an environmental measure.

Who is bound, and from when

The obligation runs through the import and export licensing framework of 2012/R-34, which applies to the parties that handle goods at the border and in the supply chain. In practice the amendment reaches:

• importers bringing in plastic film, sheet and tube-roll products;
• wholesalers distributing such goods domestically;
• retailers selling them to end users.

There is no transition period written into 2026/R-93: article 2 of the amendment fixes application from the publication date, and the gazette carries no separate commencement clause, schedule or deadline. Operators holding or expecting consignments of the listed plastic forms are therefore governed by the amended article 30 from 9 November 2026.

The publication follows two other instruments carried in the same issue of the gazette, decisions 2026/18 and 2026/19, which deal with unrelated matters, so the trade amendment stands on its own instrument number and date.

Why it matters

For businesses that import, warehouse or sell plastic film, sheet and tube rolls, the amendment changes the legal position of goods already in the commercial chain, and it does so immediately rather than at the end of a notice period. Because the change sits inside the export, import and re-export regulation rather than in a standalone environmental rule, compliance is now a trade-control question for importers, wholesalers and retailers alike, with the operative reference to cite being article 30, clause (ޅ), sub-clause (2) of 2012/R-34 as replaced by 2026/R-93.

Source: Government of Maldives gazette, No. 166, 9 November 2026, section I (official reference: 2026/R-93).