Taiwan will bar a wider range of mercury-containing goods from import beginning July 1, 2026, under an amendment that the Ministry of Environment (MOENV) formally announced on June 22. The curbs roll out in three waves through 2028 and pull the island's rules into line with the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Because the transition is staged rather than sudden, companies that import, distribute or rely on such products have a window to map their portfolios to the new timetable and rework their sourcing before each deadline bites.
The change builds on earlier restrictions that already covered switches and relays, high-pressure mercury lamps for general lighting, and non-electronic measuring instruments such as barometers, thermometers and blood-pressure gauges, each carrying some leeway. That leeway now disappears for two of them, switches and relays and non-electronic measuring instruments, with the former carve-out for very-high-accuracy capacitors and measuring bridges dropped as well, while the catalogue of barred goods grows and a single narrow waiver route takes the place of the old item-by-item exemptions.
1. What Is Barred
|
Product Group |
Products Covered |
Import Banned From |
|
Electrical & electronic components |
Switches and relays (previously restricted; the former allowance for very-high-accuracy capacitors and loss-measuring bridges up to 20 mg Hg per bridge has been removed); cold-cathode and external-electrode fluorescent lamps for electronic displays |
1 July, 2026 |
|
General lighting - high-intensity and self-ballasted |
High-pressure mercury lamps for general lighting; self-ballasted fluorescent lamps (up to 30 W) for general lighting |
1 July, 2026 |
|
Measuring instruments |
Melt-pressure transducers, transmitters and sensors (electronic); non-electronic instruments such as barometers, hygrometers, pressure gauges, thermometers (including clinical ones) and sphygmomanometers (previously restricted; the former allowance for units in large equipment or high-precision use has been removed) |
1 July, 2026 |
|
Industrial, specialty and other uses |
Mercury vacuum pumps; tire balancers and wheel balance weights; strain gauges used in plethysmographs; photographic film and paper; propellants for satellites, spacecraft and other space vehicles |
1 July, 2026 |
|
General lighting - compact and halophosphate tubes |
Compact fluorescent lamps for general lighting; linear and non-linear fluorescent lamps for general lighting using halophosphate phosphors |
1 January, 2027 |
|
General lighting - triband tubes |
Linear and non-linear fluorescent lamps for general lighting using triband phosphors |
1 January, 2028 |
2. The Narrow Waiver Route
A banned item can still clear customs, but only with verified paperwork and prior sign-off from the authority, and only within tight bounds. Eligible cases are few: goods needed for civil defense or military use; those bound for research, testing, teaching, calibration or use as reference standards; and, where no mercury-free option yet exists, a short list of niche applications. That list covers very-high-accuracy capacitors, loss-measuring bridges and high-frequency RF switches and relays in monitoring gear; display backlights (cold-cathode and external-electrode fluorescent lamps); and measuring instruments built into large equipment or used for high-precision work. Because approval must be in hand before a shipment is planned, late filing is a sure way to stall the supply chain.
3. Where the Impact Lands
The sharpest pinch falls on firms that leaned on the old exemptions for switches and relays or for non-electronic instruments, since their transitional cover is now gone. The 2027 and 2028 waves land mainly on lighting, first halophosphate-phosphor tubes and compact lamps, then triband-phosphor tubes, so lamp makers, importers and brand owners should time their switchovers and stock draw-downs to those dates. Across the board, the practical to-do is the same: check which products still contain mercury, judge whether any might qualify for a waiver, and line up mercury-free alternatives before each deadline takes effect.
