Bolsonaro “sets business owners free” with new decree

It is no secret that bureaucracy in Brazil has gotten out of hand. Simple administrative processes can often take on Kafkaesque proportions, with illogical requirements and mind-numbing delays. For instance, many documents in Brazil require “recognized signatures,” a process which entails queueing up at a notary office and paying a fee simply to attest to the veracity of one’s own signature. Such bizarre rules have slowed Brazil’s economic recovery, stifling the creation of new businesses and investment.

It is in this bureaucratic swamp that the Jair Bolsonaro has issued its latest provisional decree, the fancifully titled “Economic Freedom Decree,” promising to make things easier for new businesses and reduce red tape.

The core provision of the measure is the removal of operating license requirements for “low-risk” economic endeavors. These businesses will now be able to be set up in record time and will have no limits on their operating hours.

Mr. Bolsonaro claims that the move is intended to “take the state off the backs” of producers, while Paulo Uebel, the special secretary of the Economy Ministry responsible for drafting the decree, claimed it will help the government “focus on what is essential,” referencing the Kiss nightclub fire which killed 242 people in 2013, which caused controversy about operating licenses in the country.

Crucially, however, the measure does not define exactly what “low-risk” activities are,...