diff --git a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
index 9129e259eef..aff8fa26f12 100755
--- a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
+++ b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
@@ -47,9 +47,9 @@ touch "$TOOLS_DIR"/src/proto/grpc/testing/__init__.py
 
 bazel build test/cpp/interop:xds_interop_client
 
-"$PYTHON" tools/run_tests/run_xds_tests.py \
+GRPC_VERBOSITY=debug GRPC_TRACE=xds,xds_client "$PYTHON" tools/run_tests/run_xds_tests.py \
     --test_case=all \
     --project_id=grpc-testing \
     --gcp_suffix=$(date '+%s') \
     --verbose \
-    --client_cmd='GRPC_VERBOSITY=debug GRPC_TRACE=xds,xds_client bazel-bin/test/cpp/interop/xds_interop_client --server=xds-experimental:///{server_uri} --stats_port={stats_port} --qps={qps}'
+    --client_cmd='bazel-bin/test/cpp/interop/xds_interop_client --server=xds-experimental:///{server_uri} --stats_port={stats_port} --qps={qps}'