No More Favorable Treatment

No more favourable treatment is the principle that a ship flying the flag of a state not party to a convention must not be treated more favourably than a ship of a party state when it calls at a party’s port. It appears in MARPOL Article 5(4), SOLAS, MLC 2006 Article V(7), and STCW, and it closes the loophole a non-party flag would otherwise offer. In practice it lets port state control hold a non-party ship to the convention standard, so a vessel cannot escape SOLAS or MARPOL inspection by registering in a non-party state.