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Friend-Shoring Critical Minerals: Investment Law at the Intersection of Geo–economics and Treaty Restraint

Tianqi Gu

World Trade Review2025https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474745625101341article
ABDC C
Weight
0.41

What the paper says

Abstract This article examines how critical minerals (CM) supply security has been absorbed into the evolving concept of national security underpinning foreign investment screening (FIS), using Australia’s treatment of Chinese CM investment as a case study. It argues that FIS now functions as a tool of strategic alignment through selective, opaque restrictions under the logic of friend-shoring. This shift raises structural tensions with Australia’s obligations under international investment agreements (IIAs). Through analysis of Australia’s FIS regime, its implementation shaped by a CM friend-shoring strategy, and potential conflicts with its IIAs with China, the article situates Australia within a broader global trend in which the expansion of FIS increasingly challenges the coherence of international investment law. It offers a novel conceptualization of FIS as a legal expression of the geoeconomic turn and proposes recommendations for reconciling strategic regulatory discretion with treaty-based commitments in an era of contested globalization.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474745625101341

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@article{tianqi2025,
  title        = {{Friend-Shoring Critical Minerals: Investment Law at the Intersection of Geo–economics and Treaty Restraint}},
  author       = {Tianqi Gu},
  journal      = {World Trade Review},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474745625101341},
}

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Friend-Shoring Critical Minerals: Investment Law at the Intersection of Geo–economics and Treaty Restraint

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.