One way Taiwan can improve its chances, Nanto said, is to negotiate FTAs with several other countries.
"If the United States sees another country out there negotiating FTAs with a lot of other countries, there is pressure in the United States to get in on the act and not be left .behind. So, the more FTAs Taiwan has with other countries, the more likely it is that the US will also want to join in," he said.
However, the Taiwan Institute's Wu noted that China has been successful in pressuring other countries, notably Japan, into not negotiating FTAs with Taipei.
He quoted one Japanese official as saying, "the political pressure from China is so high so far that Japan thinks it's premature to negotiate with Taiwan," until the US negotiates an FTA.
He also noted it has been two years since Singapore's Lee Kwan-yew and Chen Shui-bian agreed to negotiate FTA, but that Chinese pressure has stymied that and other FTA negotiation attempts by Taiwan.
Wu's institute sponsored the recent seminar along with the Taiwanese-American-led Institute for International Development Studies in Virginia and the Friends of Taiwan in Los Angeles, California.
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