The Council was created in response to a request from the ASEAN governments at the ASEAN-US dialogue of 1984. First known as the "US-ASEAN Center for Technology Exchange," the Council's mission was to enhance trade and investment opportunities for US companies in ASEAN, and to increase the ASEAN countries' access to US sources of technology and training. President Ronald Reagan remarked on the Council's founding, "You are embarking on a most important and innovative private sector initiative to strengthen the United States presence and our competitiveness in Southeast Asia." In 1989, The US-ASEAN Center for Technology Exchange absorbed the ASEAN-US Business Council that had been housed in the United States Chamber of Commerce since 1979. Following the merger, the Council took the name of the US-ASEAN Council for Business and Technology. The name was formally changed to US-ASEAN Business Council in 1997. Since the Council's founding in 1984, there has been remarkable growth in trade between the United States and ASEAN, reaching US$198.5 billion in 2012.
