diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 58ef02ac8a62..eb0c0f8fd7a4 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -304,6 +304,7 @@ def make_release_tree(self, base_dir, files):
         "numpy>=1.19",
         "setuptools_scm>=4",
         "setuptools_scm_git_archive",
+        "packaging>=20.0",
     ],
     install_requires=[
         "cycler>=0.10",
diff --git a/setupext.py b/setupext.py
index bc4c1b71c505..6f59f403c070 100644
--- a/setupext.py
+++ b/setupext.py
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@
 import tarfile
 import textwrap
 import urllib.request
-from packaging import version
 
+from packaging import version
 from setuptools import Distribution, Extension
 
 _log = logging.getLogger(__name__)