diff --git a/Lib/functools.py b/Lib/functools.py
index 6cb532323b1..55990e742bf 100644
--- a/Lib/functools.py
+++ b/Lib/functools.py
@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ from collections import namedtuple
 # import types, weakref  # Deferred to single_dispatch()
 from reprlib import recursive_repr
 from _thread import RLock
-from types import GenericAlias
 
+# Avoid importing types, so we can speedup import time
+GenericAlias = type(list[int])
 
 ################################################################################
 ### update_wrapper() and wraps() decorator
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-09-24-13-28-35.gh-issue-109653.9IFU0B.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-09-24-13-28-35.gh-issue-109653.9IFU0B.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c4f5a62433a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-09-24-13-28-35.gh-issue-109653.9IFU0B.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Improve import time of :mod:`functools` by around 13%. Patch by Alex
+Waygood.