The Obama administration has made export promotion a central component of its revised economic platform, and last month the White House finalized a long-stalled trade agreement with South Korea.
In other words, U.S. refiners are exporting U.S. high-sulfur distillates instead of refining it into low-sulfur diesel fuel than can be sold in the U.S. Chile, Mexico and several other countries in Central America have been the leading export markets for high-sulfur U.S. diesel.