The Trump administration on Monday proposed the imposition of 100 per cent tariffs on up to $2.4bn of French goods, including champagne, after concluding that the country’s digital services tax unfairly discriminated against American technology companies.

The plan came at the end of a day marked by escalations in trade tensions between the US and key allies, starting with an announcement that Washington would restore tariffs on metals from Argentina and Brazil to punish them for their currency policies.

In addition, the US trade representative’s office said it was looking at broadening a range of punitive tariffs on EU products, including goods from the UK, France, Spain and Germany, because of subsidies to Airbus, the aircraft maker, that have been judged as illegal by the World Trade Organization.