G/TBT/N/SYC/4  
 
25 October 2018  
(18-6702) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6  
 
1. Notifying Member: SEYCHELLES   
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):   
2. Agency responsible:  
Department of Environment  
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change  
Botanical Garden  
P.O. Box 445  
Mont Fleuri  
Mahe  
Republic of Seychelles  
Tel: +2484670500  
Fax: +2484610648  
Name and address (including  telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   
Trade Division  
Ministry of Finance, Trade, Investment and Ec onomic Planning  
P.O. Box 313, Liberty House  
Victoria  
Tel: +248 4303404  
Email: enquirywto@finance.gov.sc  
website: http://www.seychellestrade portal.gov.sc  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): Other 
articles  of plastics and articles of other materials of headings 39.01 to 39.14. (HS 3926).  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Environment 
Protection (Restriction on the importation of Plastic straws) Regulations 2018    
6. Description of content: Plastics continues to be persistent in the environment and have 
significant aesthetic and wildlife negative impacts. It is known that plastics can take 
hundreds of years to break down and they can have long -term impacts on the 
environment, including posing threats to marine life and contribute to flooding due to 
blocked drains and waterways. Plastic straws only get used for a few minutes but last for 
hundreds of years in the environment and are amongst the top 10 pollutants collected  
during beach clean -ups. They further destroy the marine life without decomposing 
completely and it break into micro plastics which eventually enter the food chain.  G/TBT/N/SYC/4  
 
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  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable: Protection of the environment; There is an urgent need in Seychelles to 
rethink the way in which the country tackles the importation and utilization of plastics so 
as to help curb the rate at which the Providence landfill 2 is quickly filling up and overal l 
to limit the impacts of non -biodegradable plastics on Seychelles' environment. MEECC is 
developing a long term strategy to eliminate plastic items in the Environment. The first 
step was to restrict in July 2017 the sale, manufacturing and importation of some plastic 
items such as plastic bags, Styrofoam boxes and some plastic utensils. Part of the plastic 
strategy was to implement this restriction in phases and as a result encourage the sale 
and use of biodegradable items. Therefore, to slowly remove plas tic items in the 
environment, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate is imposing a restriction 
on the importation, manufacturing and sales of single use plastic straws.  
8. Relevant documents:   
• Environment Protection (Restriction on the importati on of Plastic straws) 
Regulations 2018   
9. Proposed date of adoption: 23 October 2018  
Proposed date of entry into force: 1 January 2019  
10. Final date for comments: 60 days from notification  
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:   
Trade Division  
Ministry of Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning  
P.O. Box 313, Liberty House  
Victoria  
Tel: +248 4303404  
Email: enquirywto@finance.gov.sc  
website: http://www.seychellestradeportal.gov.sc  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/SYC/18_5597_00_e.pdf