Chambers of Commerce

Abstract

Despite the efforts of many local chambers of commerce, particularly the larger ones, the involvement of the chamber of commerce movement in the conduct of UK industrial and commercial policy and delivering national business support programmes lags behind its counterparts in other European countries. Membership of a chamber is compulsory in some Single Market countries and the chambers are invested with statutory powers and responsibilities. In eight of the twelve EC member states, chambers carry public law status. As a London Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey has shown, this has created a ‘solid financial base from which these chambers are able to provide sophisticated and wide ranging services to business’. By comparison with the financial position of UK chambers, other European chambers are generously financed, enabling them to carry out a wide range of support activities for local business. But the role of chambers in these countries is not wholly mundane, or dealing with the detail of putting policies into practice. The heavy reliance on chambers in Germany and France, for example, to nurture local business is more than just a matter of administrative style. It symbolises a profound difference in official attitudes to industry and commerce, showing due regard for the importance of the health of the business sector in the national economy.