The competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in the United States has been discussed extensively in the press and economic literature in recent years. This joint study by KPMG and the Manufacturing Institute provides a current assessment of how the U.S. compares to its main trading partners as a location for manufacturing. Specifically, it found that primary costs (compensation, property, utilities, taxes and interest rates) in the U.S. are on average 16% higher than in the other markets—yet the U.S. ranks fairly high on the list overall at #5.