Albanese’s critical minerals deal isn’t good economics – but in Trump and Xi’s new world, bargaining chips matter

Anthony Albanese has struck a multibillion-dollar deal with Donald Trump to develop critical minerals projects in Australia that will never be commercially viable.

When it’s laid out like that, it very much sounds as though our prime minister fell victim to the president’s “art of the deal”. But we are in a new world where the national value of our critical minerals extends beyond economics.

USSC Director of Economic Security Hayley Channer was quoted in the article on the importance of the deal.