Closing on the basis that:
1. Richard provided a proposed workaround but did not receive a response from the OP in 1.5 years.
2. Issues encountered by the OP may have been addressed in part by changes in the way import works in the past 4.5 years.
3. This issue has been effectively "pending" (though not formally marked as such) for more than a year without further information being received from the OP.