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Joe Biden will sign a strong executive order to curb the search for rents and promote competition throughout the U.S. economy, including a push for antitrust regulators to ban non-compete clauses for workers.
The White House on Friday introduced 72 measures included in the Biden order, which spanned industries from technology and transportation to healthcare and banking, which were designed to limit the ability of companies to unfairly increase their market power at the expense of smaller rivals.
The U.S. president also called for stronger enforcement of existing antitrust laws in the United States, which could trigger greater control over mergers and acquisitions activities.
“Economists find that as competition decreases, productivity growth decreases, investment and business innovation decrease, and income, wealth, and racial inequality expand,” the White House said in the sheet informative about the executive order.
“When past presidents faced similar threats from growing corporate power, they took bold steps,” he added, citing the efforts of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early part of the 20th century.
The Biden administration’s impetus for competition includes a provision to “encourage” the Federal Trade Commission, the top competition regulator chaired by Big Tech critic Lina Khan, to “ban or limit” non-compete clauses in order to “facilitate job change and help raise wages.”
Other measures include a plan to curb the ability of manufacturers to prevent customers from requesting their own repairs on certain products and to ban excessive termination costs from Internet bills.
Over-the-counter hearing aids would be allowed to be sold on drug stories, while airline customers would find it easier to get returns, and bank customers could pass on their data to other providers with less difficulty than at present.
Biden’s order also directs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to work with states and tribes import prescription drugs from Canada, the latest offering to reduce drug costs.
The executive order comes as the Biden administration faces criticism from Republicans because its $ 1.9 million stimulus plan has sparked inflation and raised the cost of living for U.S. consumers .
But it is also consistent with the U.S. president’s efforts to shift the balance of power in the U.S. economy, away from corporations and large corporations to smaller businesses and middle- and lower-class households.
It is unclear, however, what part of Biden’s plan will be implemented the way the White House expects. Many of the provisions are encouraged but not binding and would be more powerful if enacted into law.
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