--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -463,8 +463,9 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
         # directly since an inconsistently reproducible issue comes up where
         # the environment variable is not set even though the value were passed
         # into configure and stored in the Makefile (issue found on OS X 10.3).
+        rt_lib_dirs = [] if cross_compiling else self.compiler.runtime_library_dirs
         for env_var, arg_name, dir_list in (
-                ('LDFLAGS', '-R', self.compiler.runtime_library_dirs),
+                ('LDFLAGS', '-R', rt_lib_dirs),
                 ('LDFLAGS', '-L', self.compiler.library_dirs),
                 ('CPPFLAGS', '-I', self.compiler.include_dirs)):
             env_val = sysconfig.get_config_var(env_var)