diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/SqoopOptions.java b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/SqoopOptions.java
index 30b4705..ef26f16 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/SqoopOptions.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/SqoopOptions.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.net.URLDecoder;
+import java.sql.Connection;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Iterator;
@@ -340,6 +341,8 @@
   // explicit split by cols
   @StoredAsProperty("reset.onemapper") private boolean autoResetToOneMapper;
 
+  @StoredAsProperty("sqlconnection.metadata.transaction.isolation.level") private int metadataTransactionIsolationLevel;
+
   // These next two fields are not serialized to the metastore.
   // If this SqoopOptions is created by reading a saved job, these will
   // be populated by the JobStorage to facilitate updating the same
@@ -1033,9 +1036,12 @@
     // Relaxed isolation will not enabled by default which is the behavior
     // of sqoop until now.
     this.relaxedIsolation = false;
-    
+
     // set default mainframe data set type to partitioned data set
     this.mainframeInputDatasetType = MainframeConfiguration.MAINFRAME_INPUT_DATASET_TYPE_PARTITIONED;
+
+    // set default transaction isolation level to TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITED
+    this.metadataTransactionIsolationLevel = Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED;
   }
 
   /**
@@ -2659,11 +2665,19 @@
     this.customToolOptions = customToolOptions;
   }
 
-    public String getToolName() {
-        return this.toolName;
-    }
+  public String getToolName() {
+    return this.toolName;
+  }
 
-    public void setToolName(String toolName) {
-        this.toolName = toolName;
-    }
+  public void setToolName(String toolName) {
+    this.toolName = toolName;
+  }
+
+  public int getMetadataTransactionIsolationLevel() {
+    return this.metadataTransactionIsolationLevel;
+  }
+
+  public void setMetadataTransactionIsolationLevel(int transactionIsolationLevel) {
+    this.metadataTransactionIsolationLevel = transactionIsolationLevel;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/manager/SqlManager.java b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/manager/SqlManager.java
index 768507b..808e330 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/manager/SqlManager.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/manager/SqlManager.java
@@ -918,7 +918,7 @@
    * (queries executed by the ConnManager itself).
    */
   protected int getMetadataIsolationLevel() {
-    return Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED;
+    return options.getMetadataTransactionIsolationLevel();
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/BaseSqoopTool.java b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/BaseSqoopTool.java
index 235f67a..3ed0f77 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/BaseSqoopTool.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/BaseSqoopTool.java
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@
  */
 public abstract class BaseSqoopTool extends com.cloudera.sqoop.tool.SqoopTool {
 
+  public static final String METADATA_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL = "metadata-transaction-isolation-level";
+
   public static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(
       BaseSqoopTool.class.getName());
 
@@ -478,6 +480,13 @@
         .hasArg()
         .withArgName("rootdir")
         .create());
+    commonOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
+        .withDescription("Defines the transaction isolation level for metadata queries. "
+            + "For more details check java.sql.Connection javadoc or the JDBC specificaiton")
+        .withLongOpt(METADATA_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL)
+        .hasArg()
+        .withArgName("isolationlevel")
+        .create());
     // relax isolation requirements
     commonOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
         .withDescription("Use read-uncommitted isolation for imports")
@@ -1029,6 +1038,17 @@
     if (in.hasOption(RELAXED_ISOLATION)) {
       out.setRelaxedIsolation(true);
     }
+
+    if (in.hasOption(METADATA_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL)) {
+      String transactionLevel = in.getOptionValue(METADATA_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL);
+      try {
+        out.setMetadataTransactionIsolationLevel(JDBCTransactionLevels.valueOf(transactionLevel).getTransactionIsolationLevelValue());
+      } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Only transaction isolation levels defined by "
+            + "java.sql.Connection class are supported. Check the "
+            + "java.sql.Connection javadocs for more details", e);
+      }
+    }
   }
 
   private void applyCredentialsOptions(CommandLine in, SqoopOptions out)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/JDBCTransactionLevels.java b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/JDBCTransactionLevels.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c141497
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/sqoop/tool/JDBCTransactionLevels.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.sqoop.tool;
+
+import java.sql.Connection;
+
+enum JDBCTransactionLevels {
+  TRANSACTION_NONE(Connection.TRANSACTION_NONE),
+  TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED(Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED),
+  TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED(Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED),
+  TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ(Connection.TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ),
+  TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE(Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE);
+
+  private final int transactionLevelValue;
+
+  private JDBCTransactionLevels(int transactionLevelValue) {
+    this.transactionLevelValue = transactionLevelValue;
+  }
+
+  public int getTransactionIsolationLevelValue() {
+    return transactionLevelValue;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/sqoop/tool/TestImportTool.java b/src/test/org/apache/sqoop/tool/TestImportTool.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4136e9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/sqoop/tool/TestImportTool.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.sqoop.tool;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.equalTo;
+import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
+
+import java.sql.Connection;
+
+import org.apache.sqoop.SqoopOptions;
+import org.junit.experimental.theories.DataPoints;
+import org.junit.experimental.theories.Theories;
+import org.junit.experimental.theories.Theory;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+
+@RunWith(Theories.class)
+public class TestImportTool {
+  @DataPoints
+  public static final Object[][] TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL_NAMES_AND_VALUES = {
+    {"TRANSACTION_NONE", Connection.TRANSACTION_NONE},
+    {"TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED",Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED},
+    {"TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED",Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED},
+    {"TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ",Connection.TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ},
+    {"TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE",Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE}
+  };
+
+  @Theory
+  public void esnureTransactionIsolationLevelsAreMappedToTheRightValues(Object[] values)
+      throws Exception {
+    ImportTool importTool = new ImportTool();
+    String[] args = { "--" + BaseSqoopTool.METADATA_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL, values[0].toString() };
+    SqoopOptions options = importTool.parseArguments(args, null, null, true);
+    assertThat(options.getMetadataTransactionIsolationLevel(), is(equalTo(values[1])));
+  }
+
+}