diff --git a/stdlib/2/typing.pyi b/stdlib/2/typing.pyi
index 747bfa4e9847..84cd0d4553ea 100644
--- a/stdlib/2/typing.pyi
+++ b/stdlib/2/typing.pyi
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 from abc import abstractmethod, ABCMeta
 from types import CodeType, FrameType, TracebackType
+import collections  # Needed by aliases like DefaultDict, see mypy issue 2986
 
 # Definitions of special type checking related constructs.  Their definitions
 # are not used, so their value does not matter.
diff --git a/stdlib/3/typing.pyi b/stdlib/3/typing.pyi
index 7ec86a1ac389..b8d7327499a0 100644
--- a/stdlib/3/typing.pyi
+++ b/stdlib/3/typing.pyi
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import sys
 from abc import abstractmethod, ABCMeta
 from types import CodeType, FrameType, TracebackType
+import collections  # Needed by aliases like DefaultDict, see mypy issue 2986
 
 # Definitions of special type checking related constructs.  Their definition
 # are not used, so their value does not matter.