The Cost Study…Costs Not Escalating, but Still High
Thursday, November 13, 2008The AP covered the news conference this morning at the NAM on the new cost study, and the story gets right to the point. From “Global gap on costs narrows for US manufacturers“:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Costs that hamper the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers have fallen in recent years compared with those of foreign producers, but high corporate taxes and other expenses still put domestic products at a distinct disadvantage in global markets, an industry group said Thursday.
The National Association of Manufacturers reported that structural costs, which include expenses such as health care, taxes and expenditures on environmental issues, have fallen since 2003 relative to the United States’ nine largest trading partners.
U.S. manufacturers now face a 17.6 percent disadvantage because of the structural costs, down from 22.4 percent in 2003, and 31.7 percent in 2006, according to the study comparing the U.S. with Canada, Japan, Germany, Korea and the United Kingdom.
NAM news release on the study is available here.
And the full 2008 cost study, “The Tide Is Turning: An Update on Structural Cost Pressures Facing U.S. Manufacturers,” is available at: www.nam.org/coststudy.
UPDATE Reuters, “High US corporate tax hurting manufacturer competiveness.”