The U.S. and Taiwan will hold trade talks this week. These are part of a series of bilateral discussions with Asian countries, set up by the Trump administration, which also include China, Japan and Malaysia. As is the case with those countries Taiwan runs a surplus in trade with the U.S., worth $14 billion in the past 12 months. The U.S. negotiators will want to boost exports to address this surplus.

That will be far from easy however. Exports in the arms, aerospace and semiconductor industries are already significant. Increased sales of pharmaceuticals are possible, where Taiwan...