Critical minerals have captured the world’s attention as constituting a modern issue straddling matters of security, sovereignty, industry, and sustainability. Characterized by concentration in production and supply chains, they are imperative for energy transition industries and manufacturing of technology and defence equipment. For resource-hungry economies such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, securing resilient and sustainable critical minerals supply chains is key to resolving anxieties about perceived Chinese weaponization of supply chains, and ensuring their economic security and national security. For resource-rich developing countries across Asia, Africa, and South America (e.g. Chile), the priority lies in not only securing fair prices, but also leveraging mineral endowments to support domestic industrialization, economic diversification, and escape primary commodity dependence. In result, we see the re-emergence of an age-old tension that has shaped both the foundations and evolution of global trade. Trade rules conceptualized during the interwar period and institutionalized in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were grounded in securing access to raw materials and markets. The references to the “resources of the world” (Preamble, First Recital) and “equitable share of the international supply of products” (Article XX(j)), and rules prohibiting the use of quantitative restrictions (Article XI), also reflect this commitment to the free exchange [...]