The Council in a statement said that the action recognised the remarkable progress that Myanmar has made in reforming its political, economic and legal system, and will ease the ability for American business to trade with and invest in Myanmar.
It said that over time, the decision should lead to a substantial increase in US-Myanmar bilateral economic engagement.
"US companies have been interested in Myanmar since sanctions were eased in 2012, but have been constrained in engaging in Myanmar by the challenges of conducting due diligence and compliance with regulations around Specially-Designated Nationals (SDN) list," its President and Chief Executive Officer Alexander Feldman said in a statement from Washington today.
Feldman added that the decision would remove the single biggest obstacle to US companies engaging in Myanmar and allow US companies to compete on a level playing field with competitors from Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
He said the action would especially benefit American Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), for whom the SDN List presented significant compliance and cost hurdles.
"We now hope that SMEs can more fully participate in Myanmar, and that Myanmar will be better able to link up with the global supply chain," he said.
US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with individuals, companies, groups or entities which are listed in the SDN List under the US Department of The Treasury's Sanctions Programmes.
According to reports, Obama told Congress Wednesday that he was reinstating Myanmar under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, a preferential tariff system introduced in 1974 for poor countries.
Myanmar was removed from GSP benefits in 1989 after pro-democracy uprisings were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta.
The Council strongly applaud the president's action, which will remove duties on more than 5,000 product lines when Myanmar officially becomes a GSP beneficiary Nov 13.
The Council said that following Obama's announcement, it is confident that Myanmar's development efforts will be only further enhanced by the opportunity to attract quality American investment, which brings with it platforms for innovation, respect for labour rights and the environment, and world-class Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
"We welcome the opportunity to support Myanmar's continued democratic transition through responsible investment and job creation," it said.
The US-ASEAN Business Council has been at the forefront of revitalising the US-Myanmar business relationship, and had bring the first major business delegation to Myanmar two days after the initial suspension of US sanctions in 2012.
The US had lifted some of the sanctions on Myanmar in May, which eased restrictions on Myanmar's financial institutions, allowed certain transactions related to US individuals living in the country, and removed seven state-owned enterprises and three state-owned banks from the US blacklist.