President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has on Tuesday ratified the 18th Amendment Bill to the Export-Import Act (31/79) of Maldives.

The aforementioned amendment was passed by the Parliament at the 28th ‎sitting of its ‎third session, on 7th December 2020.

Following ratification, import of any goods declared as single-use plastic by the President will be prohibited under section 7 of the Act. It vests the President with the authority to compile and publicize a list of goods to be classified as such and to add or remove items from that list. This will enable the Maldives to steadily phase out single-use plastic.

The amendment mandates the Government to compile and publicize the temporary list of banned single-use plastics, including the date from which the changes will come into effect, before 1st January 2021, on the Government Gazette.

Following ratification, the ‎Act has been ‎published in the Government Gazette. With the ratification, Section 12 of the 17th Amendment to the Export-Import Act (31/79) of Maldives has been rendered void.