english

Professor Godoy

English 101

March 15th, 2019

Current Event Assignment #1

When it came to decide on my current event topic it was a very difficult choice. With so many pending topics that are currently happening in our society such as human rights, climate change, medicine, and many more events I ultimately decided to do my paper on Brexit. Many have been hearing about Brexit in the last couple months but what exactly is Brexit? In simple terms Brexit is Britain’s separation from the European union. The EU is comprised of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and twenty-three other countries. The European Union was established on November first of 1993 and its objective was to set up the aim of ending the constant and bloody wars between the neighboring countries following the second world war. Many had been wondering why Britain decided to leave the EU since it was a secure and surefire way of those countries staying strong and united but Britain had considered many of its pros and cons of being in membership with the European Union such as changing its relationship to the bloc on trade, security and migration according to the New York Times.

Due to a refugee crisis in 2016, this made migration a hot topic amongst the European political landscape. The UK wanted to leave the EU so that they can reassert control on its own borders and be able to decide who and what is let through. Due to this, Britons voted for Brexit by a 52 percent to 48 percent vote. One current factor that is the most talked about today is not due with migration but more of their economy. According to the internet news site Vox, “Brexit will have a huge implication for the British economy. The EU functions as a single integrated economy…And now that Britain is out, regulations could make it harder to move goods across the English Channel”. This is just one of the many possible implications that could happen with the Brexit deal among others. For example, any European Union members have the ability to move, work, and live in any other country that is in the Union without a visa, but with Britain outside this union this will become a very difficult task for hundreds and thousands of citizens.

Now that Brexit is set in motion and is bound to happen within fourteen days there are still many unsure and unanswered questions. There are still many moving parts in this deal as well as a very long and tenacious negotiation between the UK and the EU member states such as issues dealing with trade, tariffs, agriculture, immigrations and many more pending issues. Many have also considered if Brexit might create a possible domino effect within the other European Union members causing them to also become independent. If this were to happen it would be catastrophic to the European economy since in 1999 the European Union introduced its new form of currency; the euro, and with UKs Brexit vote this will largely hurt the value of the euro.

Many here in the United States might think that Brexit is simply a foreign affair that does not implicate us in any way but simply put, there is no politics without economics and there is no economics without politics. The Brexit vote will not only deeply affect the EU but will also affect the US economy. According to the news source CNN Business, “The European Union is one of the world's largest trading blocs and it's a major trade partner with China and the United States. If it breaks, it could lead to a lot of global uncertainty and many trade deals would need to be restructured”. Most importantly the affects of Brexit will be felt in the US stock market. As well as having to negotiate new trade deals with the UK since it will no longer be a member of the EU which can potential take years. In the end, I decided to write about this topic because it had intrigued me not only as a political science major student but as a human being and seeing all of its possible affects it will have throughout the world.

Work Cited

“Brexit: What's the Impact on the US?” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 June 2016, www.cnn.com/.