diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/config.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/config.ts
index a2ef623fbd..f9087aedb4 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/config.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/config.ts
@@ -30,5 +30,4 @@ export const DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     numberOfLinksPerSpan: getEnv().OTEL_SPAN_LINK_COUNT_LIMIT,
     numberOfEventsPerSpan: getEnv().OTEL_SPAN_EVENT_COUNT_LIMIT,
   },
-  gracefulShutdown: true,
 };
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/types.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/types.ts
index c90502006e..eb0caba670 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/types.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-tracing/src/types.ts
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ export interface TracerConfig {
   /** Resource associated with trace telemetry  */
   resource?: Resource;
 
-  /** Bool for whether or not graceful shutdown is enabled. If disabled spans will not be exported when SIGTERM is recieved */
-  gracefulShutdown?: boolean;
-
   /**
    * Generator of trace and span IDs
    * The default idGenerator generates random ids