Trump economic adviser Cohn quits over tariffs dispute

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US President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said on Tuesday he was resigning, a decision that came after he lost a fight within the White House over plans to impose hefty steel and aluminum tariffs.

Trump said he would make a decision soon on appointing a new chief economic adviser. "Many people wanting the job – will choose wisely!" Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

White House officials said the dispute over tariffs contributed to Cohn's decision to resign but was not the only reason. One official said there had been several issues that led to the parting, but noted: "His biggest mission was on the tax cut bill, which he got passed."

The White House said the timing of Cohn's departure from his role as director of the National Economic Council had not been finalized but was still a few weeks away. It was the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the White House.

Following the news of Cohn's resignation, the US dollar weakened, while an exchange-traded fund tracking the broad market S&P 500 dipped one percent. Prices for US government debt barely budged.

Trump's announcement last week of his plans to impose the tariffs sent US stock prices tumbling and came after an intense debate within the White House between Cohn and other advocates of free trade with protectionist advisers such as Peter Navarror, according to White House officials.

White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn's empty seat is seen prior to US President Donald Trump's joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in the White House East Room in Washington, US, March 6, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Cohn, who served in the White House for a little more than a year, struck an early rapport with Trump and proved influential in the administration's decisions last April not to label China a currency manipulator and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, instead of terminating it.

He also emerged as one of the main drivers of the tax overhaul package passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump late last year. The overhaul was Trump's first major legislative victory.

"It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform. I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the Administration great success in the future," Cohn said in a statement issued by the White House.

Cohn's relationship with Trump began to sour last summer, after Cohn disagreed with the president's tepid response to clashes between neo-Nazis and anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, sources close to Cohn said.

Cohn, a Democrat, had aligned himself with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president's daughter Ivanka Trump, who are both senior White House advisers and like Cohn, are seen as centrists.

Cohn, a former president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs, was seen as a bulwark within the White House against protectionist policies.

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Source(s): Reuters