I don't understand the relationship between regulations and the higher cost of bengay. It seems more likely that the higher cost of bengay is due to it being needed to ship across the world.
Is there not a Dutch version of the same compound, manufacturered closer to home?
Bengay was one small example which I picked because it was the first off my head. Assuming that a Dutch import business bought it from the shelves of Walmart for the normal price, sales tax and all, they would have to be somehow paying €260 per kilogram for shipping for the price to be what it is; shipping, or taxes, can in no way come close to explaining the price being five and a half times higher.
There are several methyl salicylate products available in the Netherlands, but they all are available for a similar i.e. extortionate price.
In a country with easier to navigate laws, you can start an import business and sell the products locally. Sure, there is a price increase due to VAT, shipping, handling and business expenses, but this is typically reasonable. For an example of a low-volume perishable food product, I'll take stroopwafels. Here in the Netherlands, where they are made, a 200 gram bag costs between €1.50 and €2.40 depending on the brand. In America, the same 200g bag costs €2.40 at Trader Joes (which is $2.79.)
That's between a 0-60% price increase - and that's for a perishable, low-volume, inexpensive food product sold in a luxury grocery store.
Unfortunately that's only 12% methyl salicylate. The people I know/knew that use Bengay regularly only use the higher strength versions at 30% methyl salicylate.
That said, I do find the UK to be substantially better than the Netherlands for buying a lot of things, despite being only about a hundred miles away. I wish there was an easy way to get products from the UK to the Netherlands - that would make a lot of things easier. There's stuff like Borderlinx but the prices are very high for such a short distance.
Is there not a Dutch version of the same compound, manufacturered closer to home?