diff --git a/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go b/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
index 40947cb379f..2a293e7271f 100644
--- a/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
+++ b/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
@@ -137,14 +137,14 @@ func (t *awsTagging) hasClusterTag(tags []*ec2.Tag) bool {
 	clusterTagKey := t.clusterTagKey()
 	for _, tag := range tags {
 		tagKey := aws.StringValue(tag.Key)
+                // Check if this is a newer-style cluster tag before checking if legacy tag value matches ClusterID
+		if tagKey == clusterTagKey {
+			return true
+		}
 		// For 1.6, we continue to recognize the legacy tags, for the 1.5 -> 1.6 upgrade
 		if tagKey == TagNameKubernetesClusterLegacy {
 			return aws.StringValue(tag.Value) == t.ClusterID
 		}
-
-		if tagKey == clusterTagKey {
-			return true
-		}
 	}
 	return false
 }