Panelists say U.S. may be at competitive disadvantage by not adopting “MLC, 2006”. Panelists at a major symposium on an international maritime agreement today said the U.S. may be at a competitive economic disadvantage if it doesn’t approve what more than 30 other shipping nations have adopted. The symposium, hosted by the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, the Charleston School of Law and its Charleston Maritime Law Institute, focused discussion on the Maritime Labor Convention, 2006, also known as “MLC, 2006.” The most significant development in seafarers’ rights law in history, it provides a comprehensive statement of seafarers’ working conditions that balance tradition and modern shipping realities.