For more than two decades the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region — known to its members simply as AICC — was the working connection between the Israeli economy and the six states of the American Southeast. This site is a historical record of that organisation: what it did, how it was structured, and the programmes it ran.
What the Chamber Was
AICC was established in 1992 as a private, not-for-profit and non-governmental business organisation. Its purpose was straightforward: to boost the Israeli and Southeastern economies by helping companies in each develop business relationships with the other and explore new market opportunities. It was headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and it served companies from Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Israel.
At its height the Chamber counted roughly 500 members drawn from American corporations, emerging businesses, professional service providers, business organisations and individuals. It described itself — and was widely described — as among the most effective bi-national business organisations in the United States, and by its own account it had been involved in completed transactions valued at over one billion dollars since its founding.
Two Directions of Travel
Almost everything the Chamber did resolved into one of two flows. In one direction it helped Israeli companies enter the United States market: opening a first American office, finding distribution, meeting customers and investors, and understanding what a US launch actually costs. In the other it helped Southeastern companies reach into Israel: sourcing technology, finding joint-venture and research partners, and travelling there on organised business missions.
Those two lanes had their own pages on the original site and they have them here — services to Israeli companies and services to American companies. The mechanism connecting them was the membership itself: volunteer screening teams of members evaluated the needs of incoming Israeli companies, supplied honest market feedback, and opened doors to the partners, customers or investors those companies were actually looking for.
Programmes
The Chamber's calendar was built around a handful of recurring programmes that ran for years:
- US-Israel Business Exchanges — the signature matchmaking series, each edition focused on a single sector and built around pre-arranged one-to-one meetings.
- The Eagle Star Awards Gala — the annual community event honouring the companies and individuals contributing most to Southeast-Israel trade and investment.
- The Professional Seminar — a yearly working session on the practical mechanics of doing business across the two markets.
- The Israel Innovation Impact Series — briefings and state-level collaborations, including the South Carolina-Israel Collaboration.
- Business missions — general, industry-specific and corporate delegations travelling to Israel to meet companies at their home bases.
Why the Southeast
The Chamber's own argument for its region, made consistently from the late 1990s onward, rested on geography and cost rather than sentiment. Atlanta sits in the Eastern Time Zone, giving companies there same-day working overlap with Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South America. Its airport offered wide connectivity, including service toward Tel Aviv. Housing, commercial space, taxes, professional services and labour were of comparable quality to competing US markets at lower cost. Atlanta also hosts the Consulate General of Israel for the Southeast, and by the Chamber's count supported an Israeli population exceeding 1,500 people.
That case worked. By the early 2010s the Chamber reported the Atlanta area as one of the top five centres of Israeli company activity in North America, with more than forty-five Israeli companies operating a US or regional headquarters there and roughly thirty more with operations across Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The state-by-state picture is described on Israeli companies in the Southeast.
Trade Between the Two Markets
The commercial backdrop to all of this was the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Agreement, the first free trade agreement the United States ever concluded, which came into full effect in 1995. It is still administered by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and its documentary requirements — in particular the certificate of origin required on shipments to Israel — were a recurring practical question the Chamber answered for exporters.
Using This Archive
The pages here reproduce the structure of the Chamber's own site. About AICC covers the organisation itself, membership and committees cover how members participated, events covers the programme calendar, and resources collects the reference material, including the frequently asked questions the Chamber maintained for companies considering the region.