The Arab British Chamber of Commerce first emerges with the historic decision to create Joint Chambers of Commerce taken by the Economic Council of the League of Arab States in the early seventies. This led to the decision by the Arab Governments to set up the Chamber under a decree of the League of Arab States which gave it a mandate to: ‘promote, encourage and facilitate bilateral trade.’ This was followed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) formally granting the Chamber a licence to operate on 10 January 1975.