WASHINGTON (Reuters] – More than 140 U.S. lawmakers have called for Katherine Tai, U.S. trade representative, to quickly revive and increase a process to exempt Chinese goods from tariffs to benefit American manufacturers.

Tai was informed by the House of Representatives that Tai’s proposal to re-launch exclusions on a few Chinese imports is too narrow. Also, American workers have been hurt by tariffs since a broader program lapsed a full year ago.

“These higher costs are undermining American manufacturing workers’ competitiveness whose inputs now cost more than those made by foreign competition,” stated the legislators, which were headed by Democrats Ron Kind and Suzan DeBene from Washington as well as Republicans Darin LaHood and Jackie Walorski in Indiana.

The Section 301 tariffs adversely affected U.S. companies in manufacturing, agriculture and fishing as well as the energy, technology, services, and technology industries.

USTR requested public comment on the exclusions of 549 Chinese import categories. This was in response to Tai’s October announcement about a new strategy for pushing China towards trade commitments.

These lawmakers argued that this is too limited, only covering 1% of the original exclusion applications. Additionally, businesses have faced more challenges due to the loss of exclusions from previous years.

“Given these facts, we urge the USTRto expand its exclusion processes as quickly as possible in order to give American workers and their families desperately needed economic relief.” The legislators wrote. Also, they called for longer periods of retroactivity to exclusions that occurred before October 12, 2021.

This letter is being sent amid growing calls from business groups to reduce tariffs by the Biden administration in order to alleviate inflationary pressures.