Red tape reform could be on the agenda in the US following the election of Donald Trump.

Trump made red tape reduction a key part of his economic plan during the campaign, repeatedly speaking of the damage over-regulation was doing to American businesses.

Trump made a number of statements throughout the election, including:

“The government should not pick winners and losers, instead it should remove obstacles to exploration… Political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules.”

“We are cutting the regulation at a tremendous clip… It’s just stopping businesses from growing”.

“My plan will embrace the truth that people flourish under a minimum government burden and will tap into the incredible, unrealized potential of our workers and their dreams,”.

On Trump’s official campaign website there is an entire section devoted to regulation, which outlines a number of proposals to reduce red tape. These include:

  •         “Ask all Department heads to submit a list of every wasteful and unnecessary regulation which kills jobs, and which does not improve public safety, and eliminate them.”
  •         “End the radical regulations that force jobs out of our communities and inner cities. We will stop punishing Americans for working and doing business in the United States.”
  •         “Issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations that are not compelled by Congress or public safety in order to give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring again, and expanding businesses. We will no longer regulate our companies and our jobs out of existence.”

The ‘Ten Thousand Commandments 2016’ report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute supports Trump’s emphasis on the need for red tape reduction. The report identifies that federal regulations cost the US economy $1.885 trillion in 2015, which equates to almost $15,000 per household. The report also observes that throughout 2015, 114 laws were passed by Congress, 3,410 rules were enacted by government agencies, and the Federal Register grew to 80,260 pages.

Red tape reduction in America has the potential to initiate a global trend of red tape reduction, and this would help Australia eliminate the $176 billion cost on our economy that red tape imposes every year.

By Michael Husek