Economic adviser Gary Cohn to step down after curbs on steel, aluminum

US President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum continued to receive pushback on Tuesday and likely caused the resignation of his top economic adviser.

Gary Cohn, head of the White House National Economic Council, will resign as he seemed poised to lose an internal struggle over Trump’s tariff plan, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Cohn is expected to leave in the coming weeks, the newspaper quoted White House officials as saying.

Trump announced last Thursday that he would sign measures this week for a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports, based on a Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which determined the foreign imports pose a national security threat.

The announcement has triggered widespread concerns about a possible trade war, retaliation from US trading partners and raising costs for US industries that depend on the imports.

Visiting Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven also pushed back in a joint press conference with Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. “I am convinced that increased tariffs will hurt us all in the long run,” he said.

The European Union, of which Sweden is a member, has vowed to retaliate if Trump imposes tariffs on their steel and aluminum. The EU has proposed retaliatory tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles from Wisconsin, bourbon from Kentucky and other products from areas that voted for Trump.

“The European Union has been particularly tough on the United States,” Trump said at the press conference. “They make it almost impossible for us to do business with them, and yet, they send their cars and everything else back into the United States.”

He threatened to put a “big tax of 25 percent” on EU cars if it chooses to retaliate against the US. “And believe me, they won’t be doing it very long,” Trump said.

Trump did not back down from the concerns over a trade war. “When we’re behind on every single country, trade wars aren’t so bad,” he said.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has often supported Trump, said that Republican senators are worried “about interfering with what appears to be an economy taking off.”

“We are urging caution that this (not) develop into something much more dramatic that could send the economy in the wrong direction,” he told reporters after a Senate lunch.