An import quota is a type of protectionist trade restriction that sets an upper limit on the quantity of a good that can be imported into a country in a given period of time. For example, a country might limit sugar imports to 50 tons per year. Quotas, like other trade restrictions, are used to benefit the producers of a good in a domestic economy at the expense of all consumers of the good in that economy. Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, a variety of restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and anti-dumping laws in an attempt to protect domestic industries in a particular nation from foreign take-over... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Critics say quotas often lead to corruption (bribes to get a quota allocation), smuggling (circumventing a quota), and higher prices for consumers.

From an economics perspective, quotas are thought to be less economically efficient than tariffs which in turn are less economically efficient than free trade. There are several measures of economic efficiency: Pareto efficiency Kaldor-Hicks efficiency X-efficiency Allocative efficiency For applications of these principles see: Efficient market hypothesis Welfare economics Production theory basics See also Business efficiency Inefficiency ... A tariff is a tax on foreign goods. ... Free trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. ...