Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

Nii Akrofi Smart-Abbey:

Okay. Now, that is a section about America's hegemony. You write that the unchallenged dominance of the US from an economic standpoint has passed. Um, has that power or dominance shifted yet to another country?

Stewart Paterson:

No, I don't believe it has. I mean, obviously, the only potential rival would be China, but you know, China is still smaller than the United States in terms of its GDP in current dollars and it's certainly not anywhere as dominant as the United States was at the time when the WTO was formed in 1995. So, there's clearly no dominance from China. Obviously, China faces some huge economic challenges. I would argue that the narrative that China is preordained to overtake the United States in terms of size is deeply flawed. But the point I was making about the loss of economic dominance by the United States was really in the aftermath of World War II when the United States really was the dominant world economy with near enough 50% share. It was the magnanimity of the United States that led to the World Trade Organization, the predecessor because obviously a country that is that dominant in any bilateral negotiation about trade, the market power of that country, is clearly going to come out with the better deal.

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