A central tenet of President Trump’s campaign platform was reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, with the desired effect of facilitating business expansion, job creation, and economic growth. This raises questions about how the regulatory landscape will change and the effect on the industrial sector.

Regulatory compliance costs have a major impact on the global manufacturing landscape. In the United States alone, manufacturers spend an estimated $192 billion per year to comply with financial, safety, and environmental regulations. This is the equivalent of an 11-percent “regulatory compliance tax.” Much of this is from environmental emissions regulations. (Source: Manufacturing Institute.)

In many cases, U.S. manufacturers spend more on regulatory compliance than those elsewhere in the world. This has major implications for competitiveness, and decisions on where production facilities and jobs will be located.

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