diff --git a/src/Makefile.global.in b/src/Makefile.global.in
index 7af91e2d58..dc8a89af8e 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.global.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.global.in
@@ -232,6 +232,8 @@ PTHREAD_LIBS		= @PTHREAD_LIBS@
 CPP = @CPP@
 CPPFLAGS = @CPPFLAGS@
 
+override CPPFLAGS := $(CPPFLAGS) $(ICU_CFLAGS)
+
 ifdef PGXS
 override CPPFLAGS := -I$(includedir_server) -I$(includedir_internal) $(CPPFLAGS)
 else # not PGXS
diff --git a/src/backend/common.mk b/src/backend/common.mk
index 0b57543bc4..5d599dbd0c 100644
--- a/src/backend/common.mk
+++ b/src/backend/common.mk
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@
 # this directory and SUBDIRS to subdirectories containing more things
 # to build.
 
-override CPPFLAGS := $(CPPFLAGS) $(ICU_CFLAGS)
-
 ifdef PARTIAL_LINKING
 # old style: linking using SUBSYS.o
 subsysfilename = SUBSYS.o
diff --git a/src/backend/snowball/Makefile b/src/backend/snowball/Makefile
index 518178ff39..50cbace41d 100644
--- a/src/backend/snowball/Makefile
+++ b/src/backend/snowball/Makefile
@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ top_builddir = ../../..
 include $(top_builddir)/src/Makefile.global
 
 override CPPFLAGS := -I$(top_srcdir)/src/include/snowball \
-	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/include/snowball/libstemmer $(CPPFLAGS) \
-	$(ICU_CFLAGS)
+	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/include/snowball/libstemmer $(CPPFLAGS)
 
 OBJS= $(WIN32RES) dict_snowball.o api.o utilities.o \
 	stem_ISO_8859_1_danish.o \