The market-access restrictions have taken many forms, including government mandates supporting domestic companies, regulatory hurdles, tariffs and the manipulation of technology standards.

"Protectionism is not new, but the scale and the scope ... is unprecedented," said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a leading trade group representing the software sector. "The challenge we face is steep. It is particularly challenging in what should otherwise be the fastest-growing markets."

The BSA recently released a report, entitled " ," enumerating various instances of market restrictions in nations such as China, India and Brazil, and has been working to raise awareness of the issue among policymakers.

In that spirit, the BSA convened a panel discussion here on Capitol Hill where Holleyman and other industry representatives argued that lawmakers and administration officials must consider the impediments to global trade that have hindered technology companies and the industries they serve as they hammer out new trade agreements or revise existing ones.

Also on hand was Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on trade. Brady professed concern at the numerous instances of digital protectionism the BSA study outlined, warning, for instance, that restrictions on cross-border data flow threaten to roll back the gains in efficiency and computing capacity that cloud computing has achieved.