  Global ballast water management regulations aiming to decrease aquatic
species invasion require actions that can increase shipping costs. We employ an
integrated shipping cost and global economic modeling approach to investigate
the impacts of ballast water regulations on bilateral trade, national
economies, and shipping patterns. Given the potential need for more stringent
regulation at regional hotspots of species invasions, this work considers two
ballast water treatment policy scenarios: implementation of current
international regulations, and a possible stricter regional regulation that
targets ships traveling to and from the United States while other vessels
continue to face current standards. We find that ballast water management
compliance costs under both scenarios lead to modest negative impacts on
international trade and national economies overall. However, stricter
regulations applied to U.S. ports are expected to have large negative impacts
on bilateral trade of several specific commodities for a few countries. Trade
diversion causes decreased U.S. imports of some products, leading to minor
economic welfare losses.
