diff --git a/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_actions.py b/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_actions.py
index 9f29a15dd8b..76f2c446eb3 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_actions.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/base/ir/ir_actions.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 # Part of Odoo. See LICENSE file for full copyright and licensing details.
 
 import datetime
-import dateutil
 import logging
 import os
 import time
@@ -13,9 +12,20 @@ from odoo import api, fields, models, tools, workflow, _
 from odoo.exceptions import MissingError, UserError, ValidationError
 from odoo.report.report_sxw import report_sxw, report_rml
 from odoo.tools.safe_eval import safe_eval, test_python_expr
+from odoo.tools.misc import wrap_module
 
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+# build dateutil helper, starting with the relevant *lazy* imports
+import dateutil
+import dateutil.parser
+import dateutil.relativedelta
+import dateutil.rrule
+import dateutil.tz
+mods = {'parser', 'relativedelta', 'rrule', 'tz'}
+attribs = {atr for m in mods for atr in getattr(dateutil, m).__all__}
+dateutil = wrap_module(dateutil, mods | attribs)
+
 
 class IrActions(models.Model):
     _name = 'ir.actions.actions'
diff --git a/odoo/tools/misc.py b/odoo/tools/misc.py
index 6233f4572b1..18a92b5fd9d 100644
--- a/odoo/tools/misc.py
+++ b/odoo/tools/misc.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import socket
 import sys
 import threading
 import time
+import types
 import werkzeug.utils
 import zipfile
 from cStringIO import StringIO
@@ -1217,3 +1218,23 @@ class Pickle(object):
     dump = cPickle.dump
 
 pickle = Pickle
+
+def wrap_module(module, attr_list):
+    """Helper for wrapping a package/module to expose selected attributes
+
+       :param Module module: the actual package/module to wrap, as returned by ``import <module>``
+       :param iterable attr_list: a global list of attributes to expose, usually the top-level
+            attributes and their own main attributes. No support for hiding attributes in case
+            of name collision at different levels.
+    """
+    attr_list = set(attr_list)
+    class WrappedModule(object):
+        def __getattr__(self, attrib):
+            if attrib in attr_list:
+                target = getattr(module, attrib)
+                if isinstance(target, types.ModuleType):
+                    return wrap_module(target, attr_list)
+                return target
+            raise AttributeError(attrib)
+    # module and attr_list are in the closure
+    return WrappedModule()