diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index f5f9e1e5e2c66..838a293b46e21 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -284,9 +284,6 @@ jobs:
         # Unpin when pytest stalling issue is fixed
         PYTEST_VERSION: '6.2.5'
         COVERAGE: 'true'
-        # Temporary fix for setuptools to use distutils from standard lib
-        # https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/17216
-        SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS: 'stdlib'
         SKLEARN_TESTS_GLOBAL_RANDOM_SEED: '7'  # non-default seed
       py38_pip_openblas_32bit:
         PYTHON_VERSION: '3.8'