March 5 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Tuesday

unveiled its latest measures to combat rising consumer costs and

charges known as junk fees, including an interagency effort to

crack down on inflated prices and limiting what banks can charge

for late credit card payments.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission will

lead a joint "strike force" aimed at stopping illegal corporate

behavior that hikes prices on Americans through anticompetitive

or fraudulent business practices, said administration officials.

The administration will also finalize a rule that slashes

credit card fees from an average of $31 down to $8, and another

that gives ranchers and farmers more leverage when negotiating

contracts with meat packers, officials said.

"Late credit card fees have gotten out of control," Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said during a

press call previewing the moves.

The moves to address rising costs come as Democratic

President Joe Biden and his allies try to change views among the

many American voters unhappy with his economic stewardship.

Biden is set to highlight the steps during the sixth meeting

of the Competition Council, which he created by executive order

to stop anticompetitive practices in sectors from agriculture to

drugs and labor.

Biden has

successfully pressured companies

such as Airbnb ( ABNB ) and Live Nation to limit

junk fees - or extra charges - that customers pay when booking

concert tickets, hotels and airfares.

The White House Council of Economic advisers estimates that

the administration's actions will eliminate more than $20

billion in junk fees annually. The moves to counter junk fees is

expected to feature in Biden's State of Union Speech on

Thursday, White House aides say.

Chopra said the limit on credit card late fees will save

American families $10 billion annually, or an average of $220

per year for the 45 million cardholders who are charged late

fees annually. Credit card issuers have been exploiting a

loophole created in 2010 that allowed them to escape a federal

ban on unreasonable fees by increasing them each year with

automatic inflation adjustments, Chopra said.

The Department of Agriculture rule, first proposed last

September, prohibits among other things retaliation against

producers for activities like asserting rights under the Packers

and Stockyards Act, which aims to ensure competition in the

livestock, meat and poultry markets.

"This final rule will provide for clearer, more effective

standards by which to govern all of this in the modern

marketplace," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on a Monday

press call.