diff --git a/spacy/syntax/ner.pyx b/spacy/syntax/ner.pyx
index 5c49fa83d..9b0014ab3 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/ner.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/ner.pyx
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ from ..structs cimport TokenC, Entity
 
 from thinc.typedefs cimport weight_t
 from .conll cimport GoldParse
-from .ner_util import iob_to_biluo
 
 
 cdef enum: