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The U.S., meanwhile, isn’t really having capital flight problems at all. As the right-hand table shows, U.S. FDI inflows did drop slightly in 2018 from US$292 billion to US$270 billion (there was a much bigger drop from 2016 to 2017). But many factors have influenced FDI inflows into the U.S., including a much higher U.S. dollar, which makes acquisitions less appealing.

However, the big story is how much American FDI outflows have changed. In 2018, American companies have been bringing capital back home: FDI outflows were –US$48 billion (yes, that’s negative US$48 billion). No doubt this reflects the Republicans’ tax reform that enabled U.S. companies to bring cash home with a much lower corporate income tax and a new exemption on repatriated dividends.

While capital stampedes to the U.S., Canada isn’t alone in being considered increasingly uncompetitive. Total world FDI inflows from OECD countries dropped from US$1.6 trillion in 2017 to US$1.3 trillion in 2018, well below the peak of US$2.2 trillion in 2015. The slowdown is mostly related to the commodity-price shock, increased trade restrictions and political disruption (think Brexit).

However, there are some notable exceptions. Australia, which is resource based like Canada, and is two-thirds our size, had an increase in FDI inflows of US$11 billion in 2018 to US$57.8 billion. France’s FDI inflows have risen by US$6.4 billion to US$56.3 billion, perhaps due to more business-friendly policies. The Netherlands’ FDI inflows jumped US$11.5 billion to US$69.6 billion. Spain had a whopping increase of US$36.8 billion to US$44.3 billion, its highest FDI inflows since 2013.

Maybe something about Canada is about to turn our trend around, despite the past few years of increased taxes and regulatory uncertainty. Invest in Canada will have much to crow about then. But the FDI story of 2018 on its own isn’t much for Canada to celebrate.

Jack Mintz is the president’s fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.