WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday revoked a 2021 executive order on promoting competition in the U.S. economy issued by his predecessor Joe Biden, the White House said.
The move by Trump, a Republican, further unwinds a signature initiative by Biden, a Democrat, to crack down on anticompetitive practices in sectors such as agriculture, drugs, and labor.
Biden signed a sweeping executive order in July 2021 to promote more competition in the U.S. economy as part of a broad push to rein in what his administration described as a pattern of corporate abuses, including excessive airline fees and large mergers that raised costs for consumers.
The initiatives, which were popular with Americans, were championed by Biden administration officials, many of whom had previously worked for or with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who played a key role in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama.
Trump had attacked that agency since taking office, announcing plans to shrink its workforce by 90%.
Those moves have cost Americans at least $18 billion in higher fees and lost compensation for consumers allegedly cheated by major companies, according to an analysis released in June by the Student Borrower Protection Center and the Consumer Federation of America.
Biden's order said it aimed to "enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, the abuses of market power, and the harmful effects of monopoly and monopsony," focused on areas such as labor and healthcare.