Swastik Dash - My Life My Views: economy

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What is Brexit and what are the impacts of it on the countries of United Kingdom?

Brexit happened in 31^st January 2020. United Kingdom separated from United Nation. United Kingdom is formed up of four countries, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Island. These four countries unitedly form United Kingdom which itself is a country. But yes, in some aspects, UK is considered as one nation and in some aspects, its considered as a combination of four nations. For example, in Cricket you would have seen England and Scotland as different countries whereas in Olympics United Kingdom is represented as a single nation. Looking into politics, government is one, the Parliament is one, but all the four countries have their own flags. In fact, the official website of UK says that UK is a country within countries.

Ireland lies very next to United Kingdom. Ireland itself is an independent country and is not a part of UK. But until 1992, it was a part of United Kingdom. Whenever we talk of Great Britain, it includes England, Scotland, and Wales. In Wikipedia it is written United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland whereas before 1992, it was written United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This means that today the entire Ireland and Northern Ireland are two separate parts of the country Ireland.

One more interesting thing is in the year 2014, it was asked to the people of Scotland if they want to be a part of the UK. Or they want Scotland also to be entirely independent as like Ireland. Then 55% people voted to be a part of United Kingdom. This was asked in accordance to the introduction of Brexit referendum.

Story of European Union

Germany, France, Portugal, Spain along with 28 other European countries collectively formed a union named as European Union. That is why whenever Visa issued by Europe, it called European visa which covers 28 countries. You do not have any restrictions to travel these 28 countries. You can freely move from France to Germany and then to Spain. There are no borders. One currency is used in all these countries called Euro. EU itself again considered as a country. Even though all these 28 countries have their own national parliament, EU has its own parliament. Citizens of all these 28 countries vote and elect the Member of Parliament (MP) for EU. Some people think that EU has been given more powers due to which it sets the rules and regulations which up to some extent is not acceptable by certain citizens.

Why was European Union formed?

European Union was formed after world war 2. This formation was solely formed in agreement with promoting peace among European countries. Both in the world war 1 and world war 2, there were harsh hatred among European countries. Germany and France were like India and Pakistan of today. After the world war 2, and Hitler being out of picture, the people of these countries felt that promotion of peace is much needed amongst these countries. In 1950’s the trade Union was formed by some handful number of countries and with time many other countries started joining the Union. In the year 1999, the decided to have one currency called Euro. With this they not only became united but emerged as a power in the world map.

European Union gives freedom to all the countries in all aspects. From business set up to travel tourism and many more. Even the usage of currencies is also not forced on any country. That is the reason why Denmark, Poland and Hungary do not use Euro as their currency. But some rules set by EU was not acceptable by some citizens like 2015 refugee crisis.

Why Brexit?

The European Union stated that every country must take a fixed number of refugees within their country in proportion of their population. This upsets many people. Many people felt that they should come out of European Union and should have their country as an independent country.

In Britain, the right-wing party which is a very conservative party in the Britain been seen taking advantage of this and suggested people that they want to come out of the European Union. With many ups and downs within the right-wing party as well, in the year 2016 a referendum was passed in favor of Brexit in which 52% of the people voted in favor of leaving EU.

There were many ups and downs in terms of deal with the EU from 2016 to 2020. And finally, in 31^st January 2020, Brexit was formed. But here also the exact trade agreements with the EU have not been negotiated.

Effects of Brexit

1 – Import Duty – 1/3^rd of products in UK are being imported from EU which will levy a export duty which eventually will have the inflation to go high.

2 – Businesses Setup – Many businesses in the UK would have to spend more to setup their businesses in other EU countries. All these spends would include taxes, land acquisition and many more.

3 – Jobs – Many people in the UK who were free to move anywhere in the EU will have to face the country exit protocols and work permit which is a burden for them.

A report says that UK faced a loss of 2.5% in the GDP with the introduction of Brexit. Unemployment rose to 1.5%, and some -6% investments were seen. The per capita income reduced by 1.5%.

Scotland Case

Even though Scotland has been a part of UK, the people there want to come out of UK and wanted to be a part of EU. But that would eventually have a very bad impact on UK in terms of the economy.

What are the three Agri Bills passed and why is there a protest?

Whenever farmers in bulk come to Delhi, they come with a valid reason. A protest basically which is in accordance with the decision of the government. And like always, the police come in action with lathi charge on those farmers. Everything goes on its way where the protest is being ignored and politics takes the main frame.

Same happened this time. The BJP led government brought three bills. Farmers from Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh are protesting at a large scale. The BJP alliance Harshimrat Kaur resigned from the cabinet showing her stand against the bills. Congress is also protesting. Farmers are the biggest vote bank in India. If that is the case, why then the center is bringing a bill which will be not beneficial for farmers. Why are there no protests in other parts of the country? Let us know more on the bills and the farmer’s demand.

What are the 3 bills?

1 – Essential Commodity Amendment Bill – This bill was introduced in 1955. The main objective of this bill was that the Government would decide how much storage could be given for a particular commodity. This bill was basically introduced to stop black marketing. There is a change introduced recently which states that only during disaster, the government would decide on the storage front whereas in other time there is no limitation in the storage. During any disaster, the government would decide how much commodity could be stored.

2 – Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce – According to this bill the government has given freedom to farmer’s that apart from Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) broad, farmers can sell their produces elsewhere. And anyone can but from farmers.

3 – Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill – According to this bill, before farming, farmers can deal with the buyer on how much could be the price. This bill also speaks about contract farming.

All these 3 bills were temporarily passed in June 2020 with an ordinance from President. This happens rarely when the Parliament is not operative. When the Parliament is operative, then ordinance and if the Parliament is running smooth, then it called the bill which is passed both from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. An ordinance is soon passed as a bill once the Parliament starts operation. And this is what happened 2 days back.

Looking into a broader perspective, the protest is not for all three bills but is for only one bill which is the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce. The bill which says that farmers can sell their produces outside of APMC. Farmers are protesting stating that why was the APMC formed and today the importance of APMC is going to decline. Yes, this might happen when there will be direct deal between farmers and buyers.

After Independence somewhere in 1950, the APMC act was introduced. That was a time when farmers were under huge debt from private money lenders. And were unable to pay that. The money lenders however used to take the farm produces from the farmers if they were unable to pay back. Because of this practice, the money lenders happened to run a monopoly in the market. To overcome this situation, state governments introduced APMC act according to which any farmers could not sell the produces apart from APMC. Here as well only those having license can buy. The buyers would bid on the produces so that farmers could get maximum profit.

How the APMC operates?

Usually a farmer would take his productions to APMC where he would give all his produces to the shops there. These shops were operated by commission agents. The commission agents would sell the products by an auction and would give back the money to the farmers. Some 2.5% commission is charged by the commission agents having shops in the APMC. The buyers would finally sell the products to respective end customers like mills, factories, etc. With times many loopholes were created, and the buyers and commission agents would sell the products at a high price and the farmers go in loss.

The bill for which the protest is going on clearly states that the APMC is not going to be closed. But the farmers would be given free hands in selling their produces either in APMC or outside of APMC.

My View – I completely support this bill. Farmers are given free hands to sell their products to the buyers. And they can decide the price. Any farmer who wants to go to APMC also has the option to go. In an overall approach, I believe that the farmers could get a better price.