diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/excel/test_readers.py b/pandas/tests/io/excel/test_readers.py
index 7c10b3e8661ef..c62144adbaecb 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/excel/test_readers.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/excel/test_readers.py
@@ -16,8 +16,6 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
-from pandas._config import using_string_dtype
-
 from pandas.compat import is_platform_windows
 import pandas.util._test_decorators as td
 
@@ -655,9 +653,6 @@ def test_dtype_backend_and_dtype(self, read_ext):
             )
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, df)
 
-    @pytest.mark.xfail(
-        using_string_dtype(), reason="infer_string takes precedence", strict=False
-    )
     def test_dtype_backend_string(self, read_ext, string_storage):
         # GH#36712
         if read_ext in (".xlsb", ".xls"):