diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/exporter.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/exporter.py
index fab74f5bb9a..d550705a512 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/exporter.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/exporter.py
@@ -132,27 +132,20 @@ def __init__(
         endpoint: str = "localhost:55680",
         credentials: ChannelCredentials = None,
         metadata: Optional[Tuple[Any]] = None,
-        compression: str = None,
+        compression: Compression = Compression.NoCompression,
     ):
         super().__init__()
 
         self._metadata = metadata
         self._collector_span_kwargs = None
 
-        if compression == "gzip":
-            self.compression = Compression.Gzip
-        else:
-            self.compression = Compression.NoCompression
-
         if credentials is None:
             self._client = self._stub(
-                insecure_channel(endpoint, compression=self.compression)
+                insecure_channel(endpoint, compression=compression)
             )
         else:
             self._client = self._stub(
-                secure_channel(
-                    endpoint, credentials, compression=self.compression
-                )
+                secure_channel(endpoint, credentials, compression=compression)
             )
 
     @abstractmethod
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/tests/test_otlp_trace_exporter.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/tests/test_otlp_trace_exporter.py
index 4e806ef3f76..efc29c60301 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/tests/test_otlp_trace_exporter.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp/tests/test_otlp_trace_exporter.py
@@ -158,19 +158,6 @@ def setUp(self):
     def tearDown(self):
         self.server.stop(None)
 
-    def test_no_compression(self):
-        """Test default compression passed to constructor"""
-        exporter = OTLPSpanExporter()
-
-        self.assertEqual(exporter.compression, Compression.NoCompression)
-
-    def test_gzip_compression(self):
-        """Test the compression argument passed to constructor."""
-        compression = "gzip"
-        exporter = OTLPSpanExporter(compression=compression)
-
-        self.assertEqual(exporter.compression, Compression.Gzip)
-
     @patch("opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.exporter.expo")
     @patch("opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.exporter.sleep")
     def test_unavailable(self, mock_sleep, mock_expo):