How many foreign investment deals get formally rejected in screening?

Formal rejection rates across UNCTAD Table II.1 countries are very low — most deals are approved, conditionally approved, or quietly withdrawn before a formal block.

How many deals did Japan withdraw from investment screening in 2024?

Japan screened 2,903 deals in 2024 with zero formal rejections but 363 withdrawals — a 12.5% true blocked rate per UNCTAD WIR 2026 Table II.1.

Which country has the highest investment screening rejection rate?

Republic of Moldova has a 33% formal rejection rate (50 of 152 screened) — an outlier far above all other reporting countries in UNCTAD WIR 2026.

UNCTAD · World Investment Report 2026

Screened, Not Stopped

Name: National security investment screening outcomes — UNCTAD WIR 2026
Creator: UNCTAD

Investment Screening Reality Check — Almost nobody actually gets rejected — they just get quietly withdrawn

True blocked rate

5.0%

vs 0.6% official

Screening regimes

Up from 21 in 2016

Governments say they're cracking down on foreign investment. The data says otherwise — 27% of 2025 policy measures were restrictive (up from 19% in 2016), but formal rejection rates across national-security screening regimes remain tiny. Deals get withdrawn instead.

Source: UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2026 · Table II.1 (national security screening by country) · Chapter II (investment policy trends)

See also: Global FDI Dashboard for country inflow context and the Megaproject Explorer for the largest deals these regimes review.

Block rate definition

Toggle to watch Japan and the US jump up the ranking — withdrawn deals are the hidden rejection channel.

Outlier — do not misread as global pattern

Republic of Moldova: 33% formal rejection rate

Moldova has by far the highest formal rejection rate (33%) — flag this as an outlier, not representative of the global pattern (50 rejected of 152 screened).

View

System-level context — Chapter II

Investment policy trends behind the screening data

National investment-policy measures in 2025

229

Record high, across 104 countries

Favourable measures

167

73% of all 2025 measures

Restrictive measures

27% — up from 19% in 2016

Economies with screening regimes

Up from 21 in 2016 (26 in 2019)

Restrictive measures that were screening

40%

Almost 40% of 2025 restrictive measures; all introduced by developed countries

Highest true blocked rates

Live ranking recomputed from Table II.1

Screening outcomes by country

Stacked bar — withdrawn shown distinctly (the “hidden rejection” channel)

UNCTAD WIR 2026 · unctad.org/wir

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Deep-link to a country or rate mode. Embed with UNCTAD attribution.

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Questions & answers

01
How many foreign investment deals actually get rejected?: Across 21 countries reporting screening data in Table II.1, the aggregate official rejection rate is just 0.6%. Most regimes approve, conditionally approve, or see deals quietly withdrawn before a formal block.
02
What is the "true blocked" rate and why does it matter?: True blocked rate counts both formal rejections and withdrawn applications. Japan screened 2,903 deals with zero rejections but 363 withdrawals (12.5% true blocked). The US had 2 rejections and 19 withdrawals (6.5% true blocked). Withdrawn deals are the hidden rejection channel.
03
Why is Moldova flagged as an outlier?: Republic of Moldova rejected 50 of 152 screened deals — a 33% formal rejection rate far above every other country in the dataset. This reflects Moldova-specific circumstances and should not be read as representative of global screening practice.
04
How should I cite this screening data?: Data: UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2026, Table II.1. Link to unctad.org/wir. Use ?country=japan or ?rate=official for permalinks.