On February 12, 2026, Taiwan's Ministry of Environment (MOENV) released a draft amendment to the Regulations for Restricting the Import of Mercury-Containing Products. The proposal seeks to broaden the scope of prohibited mercury-added products to align with the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and revise the conditions under which certain banned products may still be imported. Stakeholders may submit comments through April 14, 2026.1
Phased Import Ban on Additional Mercury-Containing Products
The draft amendment expands the list of mercury-containing products banned from import, with new restrictions phased in over the coming years. Details are provided in the table below.
Mercury-Containing Products | Effective Date |
1) Fluorescent lamps with an integrated ballast for general lighting purposes that are ≤ 30 watts; 2) Cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps for electronic displays; 3) Strain gauges to be used in plethysmographs; 4) Mercury vacuum pumps; 5) Tyre balancers and wheel weights; 6) Photographic film and paper; 7) Propellants for satellites, spacecraft, or other space vehicles; 8) Electrical and electronic measuring devices, including melt pressure transducers, transmitters, and sensors. | May 1, 2026 |
1) Compact fluorescent lamps for general lighting purposes; 2) Linear and non-linear fluorescent lamps using halophosphate phosphors for general lighting purposes. | January 1, 2027 |
Linear and non-linear fluorescent lamps using triband phosphors for general lighting purposes. | January 1, 2028 |
Revised Exemption Conditions for Import of Mercury-Containing Products
In addition to expanding the list of mercury-containing products subject to the import ban, the draft also revises the exemption conditions for importing such products.
Specifically, the draft extends the permissible import purposes for banned mercury-containing products to include testing and educational use. Moreover, unlike the current regulation—which allows a defined set of banned mercury-containing products lacking suitable mercury-free alternatives to be imported upon prior approval from the MOENV—the draft further narrows the scope of exemptions by limiting conditional import allowances to the following three product categories. Among them, the first and third categories were previously subject to general exemption from the import ban:
Very high accuracy capacitance and loss measurement bridges, and high-frequency radio frequency switches and relays used in monitoring and control instruments;
Cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps for electronic displays;
Electrical and electronic measuring devices, or non-electronic measuring devices, installed in large-scale equipment or used for high-precision measurements.
