diff --git a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
index c45285715b1..f581f8a4aed 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
@@ -50,9 +50,11 @@ from boltons.iterutils import (
 LXML_AVAILABLE = True
 try:
     from lxml import etree
+    Element = etree._Element
 except ImportError:
     LXML_AVAILABLE = False
     import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree  # type: ignore[assignment,no-redef]
+    Element = etree.Element
 from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
 from requests.packages.urllib3.util.retry import Retry
 
diff --git a/lib/galaxy/util/xml_macros.py b/lib/galaxy/util/xml_macros.py
index 42c6680d71d..c55ce64d56f 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/util/xml_macros.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/util/xml_macros.py
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@ import os
 from copy import deepcopy
 from typing import Dict, List
 
-from galaxy.util import parse_xml
+from galaxy.util import (
+    Element,
+    parse_xml,
+)
 
 REQUIRED_PARAMETER = object()
 
@@ -20,7 +23,7 @@ def load_with_references(path):
     if macros_el is None:
         return tree, []
 
-    macros: Dict[str, List[XmlMacroDef]] = {}
+    macros: Dict[str, List[Element]] = {}
     macro_paths = _import_macros(macros_el, path, macros)
     macros_el.clear()