Actually, IMHO import lists like in Java or Python do not fit Smalltalk at all. Sure, people want to use unqualified names in their code. But in those file-centric environments, you know exactly where to look to identify which local name refers to which global name - you scroll up a few pages to the import list. Also, these imports always travel with the code using them, because it's in the same file.
This confirms why I have doubts about import. But this is intriguing. don't you think that if package were first class they could be the compilation unit and get import attached to them.
Not so in Smalltalk. As has been noted elsewhere, the compilation unit is a method in a class. Consequently, you need either fully qualified names, or have class-based imports. We already have a way to express the latter (class pools [*]), and we may like to have a way for the former. That's all.
Stef