What do you think about the quote below?

"The 'imports are evil, exports are good' mentality is a symptom of an incomplete understanding of what trade is all about. Trade is about using what you have to get what you want, and it benefits both the buyer and the seller. You can't help people by restricting their right to trade. That is simply absurd."

This suggests that import bans, tariffs, etc are almost never helpful, if ever. How true is this?

Sounds more like the mercantilist views of the Renaissance to the late Classical period in Europe, where someone wrote in a British journal in 1849:

"be wary of buying from strangers more than we sell to them, lest we impoverish ourselves and enrich them instead"


Sadly, some economies like Japan and China still practice such stuff

Why Nigeria is stupidly trying to follow suit with all the import prohibitions without being able to produce anything for export simply beats the imagination.