WASHINGTON—Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump and a key ally for Canada in a White House skeptical of free trade, announced his resignation Tuesday after Trump refused to relent on his plan to impose broad tariffs on steel and aluminum.Cohn, a former president of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, is a pro-trade Democrat who was seen by Wall Street as an important counterweight to the administration’s “nationalist” faction.His trade views sat uneasily with those of Trump, who has long favoured protectionism, and it was never clear how much influence he managed to exert on trade policy. Cohn had tried furiously, to no avail, to persuade Trump not to announce the tariffs.But his departure as director of the National Economic Council may be another sign of the ascendance of the White House’s protectionist faction. It comes just over a week after Trump promoted trade skeptic Peter Navarro, who had previously been sidelined by chief of staff John Kelly.Cohn’s resignation was announced less than two hours after Trump declared at a news conference that “trade wars aren’t so bad.” Trump had also cancelled a meeting Cohn had been trying to arrange with business executives opposed to the tariffs.Trump explained at the news conference that he likes to make decisions by watching people with opposing views argue. Cohn’s exit means the loss of perhaps the strongest trade-friendly combatant in the room.The U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and U.S. stock futures all dropped in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.“Not having someone there who understands business and financial markes, and is broadly speaking pro-trade, is generally unhelpful to those who want to take a less-than-zero-sum, constructive approach to trade policy,” said Eric Miller, president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a U.S.-Canada consultancy. “So we are losing an ally on the constructive si ...
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