Book excerpt: Taiwan has a special status for the United States, as both a leading high-technology economic partner and a place of political and security concern. The authors look at both the quantitative and qualitative evidence on the potential effects of a US-Taiwan free trade agreement (FTA), both for maximizing US economic benefits and for securing a prosperous and secure future for Taiwan. Their analysis indicates that the direct economic benefits of a prospective FTA would be modest and that the FTA could be most valuable to the United States if it leads Taiwan toward greater regional integration.