Looming on the horizon for Australia as a nation is the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), which restricts governments from giving more favourable treatment to local firms than foreign suppliers.
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As of this August 44 countries are bound by the treaty, which came into being in 1994.
It guarantees signatory nations the right for their companies to be treated as local suppliers by the governments of other countries that have signed up, when handing out contracts for government work such as infrastructure projects.
Signatories include Canada, the US, China, the European Union and Japan.
But this type of treaty has not prevented the US from continuing with protectionist policies such as the Buy American Act.
Dr Stanford said the US was assisted by its size as a trading partner, as well as the size of its domestic economy, which makes it less reliant on international trade.
Australia is not one of the signatory nations to the GPA treaty yet, but is listed as being an "observer" to the process.
The WTO says Australia is in the process of "negotiating accession" to the GPA, meaning this nation may be on the path to further rules restricting the government's ability to give more favourable treatment to Australian companies such as BlueScope.
