WASHINGTON – Biden administration to push regulators to deal with consolidation and perceived anti-competitive pricing in shipping and railroad industries as part of broad effort to blunt corporate power to dominate industries, according to a person familiar with the situation.

As part of an executive order expected this week, the administration will ask the Federal Maritime Commission and the Surface Transportation Board to tackle what it calls a consolidation and aggressive pricing model that has made it very costly for businesses. American transport of goods to market.

The administration says the relatively small number of major players in the shipping trade and freight rail industry in the United States has allowed companies to charge unreasonable fees.

In the case of the seven Class 1 freight railways, the consolidation gave the railways monopoly power over sections of the country where theirs are the only freight tracks, the person said.

The call to crack down on shipping and freight is one facet of a multi-faceted executive order that will be one of Mr Biden’s most sweeping unilateral economic policy moves to date.