Excerpt from document summary
(C/NF) What was to be a routine Elective General Assembly
for the Tunisian-American Chamber of Commerce turned out to
be less so when TACC's President, Mondher Ben Ayed, announced
he was not running for re-election.

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DE RUEHTU #0454/01 1901630
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 091630Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY TUNIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6520
INFO RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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S E C R E T TUNIS 000454

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STATE FOR EEB/IFD/OMA, EEB/EPPD, AND NEA/MAG (HAYES)
STATE PASS USTR (BURKHEAD) AND USAID (MCCLOUD)
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/ONE (MASON), ADVOCACY CTR (TABINE), AND
CLDP (TEJTEL AND MCMANUS)
USDOC PASS USPTO (ADAMS, BROWN AND MARSHALL)
CASABLANCA FOR FCS (ORTIZ)
CAIRO FOR FINANCIAL ATTACHE (SEVERENS)
LONDON AND PARIS FOR NEA WATCHER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/03/2019
TAGS: ECON, EFIN, EINV, ETRD, TS
SUBJECT: POLITICS RATTLE THE TUNISIAN-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE

Classified By: Ambassador Robert F. Godec for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

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Summary
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1. (C/NF) What was to be a routine Elective General Assembly
for the Tunisian-American Chamber of Commerce turned out to
be less so when TACC's President, Mondher Ben Ayed, announced
he was not running for re-election. Popular among the
membership and credited for repairing TACC's broken finances,
Ben Ayed cited "health" reasons as the impetus for his
departure. A week later, the TACC board, now made up of
eleven Tunisian and nine American companies, elected the
relatively unknown Nazeh Ben Ammar, head of a Tunisian
textile company, as the new president. Ben Ayed met
privately with the Ambassador and revealed he chose to step
down because of the political risks involved in the position.
He said the GOT viewed TACC as a "political organization"
because of its role as a Tunisian interface with the U.S.
Embassy. Unfortunately, at least one U.S. company is
thinking twice about participating in TACC, citing
nervousness about how the GOT views the organization. TACC's
future plans seem to be business as usual - work on the
various committees, strengthening bilateral business
relations, and a door-knock lobbying mission to the United
States in October. It remains to be seen if new leadership
will translate into any change for the role of TACC in
Tunisia. End Summary.

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TACC's New Board
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2. (U) On June 18, the Tunisian-American Chamber of Commerce
(TACC) held their Elective General Assembly, electing the new
20-member board of the organization. Eleven Tunisian and
nine American companies presented themselves as candidates
and were unanimously voted in by acclamation from the
membership. Among the U.S. companies are Coca-Cola,
Citibank, Cisco, and Pfizer (please see complete list of
board members in Para 9). TACC is not yet an official
American Chamber of Commerce, in part because they do not
have a U.S. company president nor do American companies make
up half of the board. In 2007, TACC was able to recruit a
sizeable number of U.S. companies to the board who had not
participated in TACC previously.

--------------------------------------------- --------------
Presidential Politics: Surprise Resignations and Candidates
--------------------------------------------- --------------

3. (C/NF) The Elective General Assembly went largely as
expected except for the surprise announcement that Mondher
Ben Ayed, TACC President, would not run for re-election. He
cited "health reasons." From its birth in 1989 until 2007,
TACC had only one president, Moncef Barouni. The
organization had weathered periods of financial mismanagement
and dwindling membership until Ben Ayed was elected. Ben
Ayed was instrumental in leading TACC out of their financial
woes and into the black again, to the point where TACC is
today turning over a considerable profit. Under Ben Ayed's
leadership, TACC also expanded U.S. company membership,
created an English-language training program, and
strengthened ties with the Embassy.

4. (C/NF) As soon as Ben Ayed made his announcement,
speculation ran rampant as to why he stepped down and who
would step into his place. XXX, owner of
Agora Foods, a food processing plant, privately told the
Embassy she was interested in running for the position. She
told the Embassy that she had begun lobbying board members
for support when Ben Ayed summoned her into his office and
urged her to stay on as Secretary General. Bedoui also
sought out a meeting with Slim Zarrouk, a well-connected
businessman with ties to the GOT, who told her "they" viewed
her as too pro-U.S. and that "they" weren't comfortable with
her as TACC President for "security reasons." Bedoui took
Zarrouk's comments to mean the GOT didn't want someone seen
as pro-U.S. leading TACC in the run-up to the October 2009
elections. Bedoui also added that Ben Ayed has strong
business ties with Zarrouk.

5. (C/NF) On June 25, the new TACC board members convened to
vote on their new leadership. Nazeh Ben Ammar, owner of a
textile company and prior member-at-large on the TACC board,
ran for the Presidency unopposed. In a private meeting with
the Ambassador, Ben Ayed shared that Ben Ammar had been a
safe choice, and the most likely to push TACC forward on its
commercial projects. Sami Smaoui, head of Hewlett-Packard in
Tunisia, noted the choice of Ben Ammar was odd, in that most
TACC presidents had served on the executive board before in
some capacity. Ben Ammar paid a courtesy call on the Embassy
on July 1 and offered his assurance that cooperation would
remain fruitful.

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Nervousness About Embassy Involvement
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6. (S/NF) In his meeting with the Ambassador, Ben Ayed said
he stepped down from TACC as a personal choice. Despite the
Embassy's purely economic and commercial involvement with the
organization, he said the GOT viewed TACC not as a regular
chamber of commerce, but as an interface between Tunisia and
the U.S. Embassy. Ben Ayed said he defended the Ambassador
and the Embassy in face of criticism from "some" in the GOT,
but that it was getting "dangerous" for him and the job
carried risks.

7. (C) Since its inception, the Embassy has had an honorary,
non-voting seat on the TACC Board. Although the Embassy had
been invited in years prior to count votes in the Executive
Board meeting (to elect leadership), this year the Embassy
was only invited to the June 18 Elective General Assembly.
Smaoui voiced his concern over this at the Executive Board
meeting and asked why the Embassy was not invited. Ben Ayed
replied that this was TACC internal business and there was no
need for the Embassy to be there. TACC did, however, invite
the Embassy to their July 6 board meeting and acted as if it
was business as usual. In a separate meeting with
Econ/Commercial Officer, Sami Smaoui said he was nervous he
didn't know exactly how the GOT viewed TACC, and said that he
was increasingly disillusioned that TACC was turning into a
"Tunisian business organization." If things continued on the
current path, he said, he would not run for a spot on the
board again.

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Upcoming TACC Activities
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8. (U) In the July 6 board meeting, Ben Ammar discussed
staffing TACC's committees: the Tunisian Company Committee,
whose purpose is to promote exports to the U.S.; the US
Company Committee, facilitating links with U.S. companies;
the Fundraising and Activities Committee; the MENA Council
Committee, promoting ties with chambers in other Middle East
and North African Countries; and the Legal Committee. TACC
is planning a door-knock mission to the United States in
October, where it will lobby members of congress and key USG
agencies to raise awareness about Tunisia and improve
contacts. TACC has asked for Embassy assistance, as in the
past, to organize this trip.

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TACC 2009-2010 Board
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9. (U) AMERICAN COMPANIES
- Starz Electronics
- Citibank
- Cisco
- Crown Maghreb Can
- Pfizer
- BST/Coca-Cola
- BMS/UPSA
- Hewlett-Packard Maghreb
- Devonshire Investors

TUNISIAN COMPANIES
- Tunisie Courtage
- Finest Food
- Mami

- AB Consulting
- Maille Fil
- Mazars
- Dahmani Transit International
- Hotel Imperial Marhaba
- Taams
- Hexabyte
- Kallel and Associates

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Comment
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10. (C) Mondher Ben Ayed's resignation is unfortunate but not
wholly suprising given the intense political nature of
Tunisia in the run-up to the October 2009 elections. Given
that the Embassy's engagement with TACC has been solely
economic and commercial, the fact that the GOT views TACC as
"political" provides insight into the regime and its
thinking. Ben Ayed has kept TACC firmly focused on
commercial matters, and has done an excellent job rebuilding
the organization. Unfortunately, all organizations in
today's Tunisia are seen through a political lens. There are
two key questions after these latest developments. First,
whether they will affect TACC's ability to operate
effectively. And, second, whether American companies will
conclude they are better off disassociating themselves from
TACC to avoid an unnecessary political risk. We will have
the answers in due course. In the meantime, however, we
believe the TACC election, which should have been simple and
straightforward, does not bode well for the organization or
for Tunisia. End Comment.
Godec