When, in your local phpMyAdmin, you could not see the 'Import' tab this was not unusual. If you have an older version of phpMyAdmin then what you'll see is an 'SQL' tab, which you click on. Then you see a Browse link, which you click on. Then you locate the backup of your online db which you downloaded - and select that. Then you click 'Go' and it imports the backup.

It's no more complicated than that.

Vger