  Countries participate in global value chains by engaging in backward and
forward transactions connecting multiple geographically dispersed production
stages. Inspired by network theory, we model global trade as a multilayer
network and study its power structure by investigating the tendency of
eigenvector centrality to concentrate on a small fraction of countries, a
phenomenon called localization transition. We show that the market underwent a
significant structural variation in 2007 just before the global financial
crisis. That year witnessed an abrupt repositioning of countries in the global
value chains, and in particular a remarkable reversal of leading role between
the two major economies, the US and China. We uncover the hierarchical
structure of the multilayer network based on countries' time series of
eigenvector centralities, and show that trade tends to concentrate between
countries with different power dynamics, yet in geographical proximity. We
further investigate the contribution of individual industries to countries'
economic dominance, and show that also within industry variations in countries'
market positioning took place in 2007. Moreover, we shed light on the crucial
role that domestic trade played in the geopolitical landscape leading China to
overtake the US and cement its status as leading economy of the global value
chains. Our study shows how the 2008 crisis can offer insights to policy makers
and governments on how to turn early structural signals of upcoming exogenous
shocks into opportunities for redesigning countries' global roles in a changing
geopolitical landscape.
