overall more than bilateral balance! but yeah, some kinds of FDI we may want (TSMC factories in Arizona), some kinds of cross-investment we don’t want even if the buyer is willing to cover the tax (a foreign firm wants to buy Lockheed). those are concerns separate and distinct from overall balance.

(my view is for inbound FDI investment we want, there should not be a category, which just encourages people to game into the category, but a discretionary application to waive the tax…

which can be granted under Congressionally delineated circumstances only AND when a discretionary committee deems the waiver to be in the national interest. it should be structurally bound to remain the exception, not the rule.)