US executive order on competition gets revoked

New antitrust enforcement said to remove barriers to innovation.

US President Donald Trump has revoked a 2021 executive order (EO) that was supposedly aimed at promoting competition in the American economy.

In the now-revoked EO, former President Joe Biden previously stated: "Over the last several decades, as industries have consolidated, competition has weakened in too many markets, denying Americans the benefits of an open economy and widening racial, income, and wealth inequality."

At the time, the goal was "to combat the excessive concentration of industry, the abuses of market power, and the harmful effects of monopoly and monopsony" in areas including healthcare and agriculture.

Commenting on the revocation, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson declared: "America's markets are the most dynamic on Earth, responsible for enriching the entire world through technological innovations, lifting countless people out of poverty, and inspiring other countries to emulate our economic system.

"Our markets thrive when they operate freely and when the Federal government does not pick winners and losers but allows businesses to grow and innovate."

Similarly, Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the US Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said: "America First Antitrust focuses on empowering the American people in the free markets, not enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes.

"We are unleashing the new American Golden Age through antitrust enforcement that removes barriers to innovation and opportunity and limits regulatory burdens on free competition."

The Antitrust Division added that it will continue to "recalibrate" the government's approach to competition policy.