diff --git a/package/mender-artifact/mender-artifact.mk b/package/mender-artifact/mender-artifact.mk
index 1031166f34..6ade624a23 100644
--- a/package/mender-artifact/mender-artifact.mk
+++ b/package/mender-artifact/mender-artifact.mk
@@ -86,14 +86,6 @@ HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_LICENSE_FILES = \
 
 HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_DEPENDENCIES = host-xz
 
-# By default, go will attempt to download needed modules before building, which
-# is not desirable. This behavior also causes permission issues when cleaning,
-# as go downloads modules as read-only by default. Because mender-artifact
-# includes the modules in the vendor directory, mod=vendor prevents the package
-# from downloading the go modules during the build process and prevents
-# permission issues when cleaning.
-HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_GO_ENV = GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
-
 HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_LDFLAGS = -X github.com/mendersoftware/mender-artifact/cli.Version=$(HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_VERSION)
 
 HOST_MENDER_ARTIFACT_BIN_NAME = mender-artifact