diff --git a/components/engine/api/client/commands.go b/components/engine/api/client/commands.go
index 81b0668cda..29dbbc7290 100644
--- a/components/engine/api/client/commands.go
+++ b/components/engine/api/client/commands.go
@@ -1101,7 +1101,8 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdImport(args ...string) error {
 
 	if repository != "" {
 		//Check if the given image name can be resolved
-		if _, _, err := registry.ResolveRepositoryName(repository); err != nil {
+		repo, _ := parsers.ParseRepositoryTag(repository)
+		if _, _, err := registry.ResolveRepositoryName(repo); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}