Embargoes A specific type of quota that prohibits all trade is an embargo. As with quotas, countries or groups of countries may place embargoes on either imports or exports, on whole categories of products regardless of origin or destination, on specific products with specific countries, or on all products with given countries. Governments impose embargoes in an effort to use economic means to achieve political goals. To the contrary, as we see in our closing case, Singapore's government seeks out business-driven strategic cooperation with China and other nations, by going out of its way to allow foreign operations to set up business operations in the country.