What has changed with local and state polices in the last 20 years? Here in TN, sales tax has gone up a little, spending has gone up some but we have a budget surplus and have cut taxes, I can't think of any dramatic changes in licensing and permitting. So what's changed?
But I will grant you, that domestic producers do bear a cost for taxes and regulations. Probably on the order of at least 10% of product costs. But we will let foreigners ship products into our country for just a 1% tariff. Our tariffs are so low that it creates an incentive to offshore production.
And what are you suggesting they eliminate? You can eliminate all local, state, and Federal taxes and regulations and you still aren't going to compete with communist China's labor wages. The tariff vs Taxes incentive is not as big as the labor wage differential, but it is yet another reason why we should raise tariffs.