On the basis of its 2nd and 3rd sessions, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ((INC) on The Legally Binding International Instrument on International Actions on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), which was established in accordance with Decision 19/13 in 1997 of the UNEP, held its 4th and 5th sessions in 2000. As the UNEP planned to complete the negotiation on the text before 2000, the two intergovernmental negotiating meetings held in 2000 were of extreme importance.

The 4th session of the INC was held in Bonn, Germany from March 20 to 25, 2000. Over 500 delegates from 121 countries, international organizations and NGOs attended it. One of the primary objectives of the session was to prepare a comparatively mature and comprehensive text of the draft resolution for the next negotiations. At the session, the delegates held negotiations on the nucleus issues such as emission measures for the reduction or elimination of the 12 POPs, technical assistance and financial resource and mechanism and had furious debates over clauses on control measures and the "elimination clause" of certain POPs (especially their intermediate compounds). Due to the wide difference between the developed and the developing countries over financial mechanism and technical assistance, no breakthrough progress on these two clauses was made. However, the session made rather great progress on clauses on national execution program, list of controlled substances, exchange of information, publication of information, the impact on the public and its education and research, development and monitoring.

To speed up the negotiation process, the chairman of the session requested that the present session should work out a text of the draft resolution on the final negotiation; any motions of any country could be listed in the draft resolution which would become the basis for the next negotiations; but after this session, the secretariat would not accept any new motions.

The 5th session of the INC was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from December 4 to 9, 2000. Over 500 delegates from 122 countries, international organizations and NGOs attended it. According to the program, this session would complete the negotiation on The Legally-Binding International Instrument on International Actions on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants and would submit the final text to the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries in 2001 for adoption and open it for signatures.

To achieve this objective, starting from the first day the session discussed substantive matters and set up several contact groups which unfolded heated negotiations on financial mechanism, control measures and the list of controlled substances. After a trial of strength, the session formulated the final text of the draft resolution.

On the question of financial mechanism, there existed great difference between the developing countries (The Group of 77+China), the economically transitory countries and the developed countries. The former advocated that the developed countries should assume the obligation of funding for the elimination of organic pollutants and set up a new, independent and sufficient financial mechanism outside the existing system of financial mechanism to help the developing countries and the economically transitory countries to fulfil their obligations. Whereas the latter advocated that all the countries should share the financial obligation for the elimination of organic pollutants and should fully utilize the existing financial mechanism, mainly the GEF as the future financial mechanism of the convention. Finally a compromise was reached on the text, i.e. the GEF would be the temporary financial arrangement of the convention and the 1st Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention would decide on the final financial mechanism and source of funding; if it decides to take the GEF as the financial mechanism, it may request the GEF to open a new financial window for it. In the preamble, the developing countries insisted on including "the principle of common and differentiating responsibilities" but this was opposed by the majority of the developed countries. As the package program of resolution, the final text embodied this principle.

Besides, the states also reached consensus on the list of controlled substances, the import and export of POPs and preventive measures.

The Chinese Governmental Delegation consisted of officials from the State Environmental Protection Administration, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health attended this session. In the negotiations, the Chinese delegation insisted on the principle of "common and differentiating responsibilities" between the developing and developed countries, insisted that a new, independent and sufficient financial mechanism outside the existing financial mechanism should be set up to ensure the implementation of the convention and stressed that the degree of the implementation of the convention by the developing countries hinged on the degree of the fulfillment of the obligation of technical and financial assistance by the developed countries. In the process of concrete negotiations, the Chinese delegation closely united with all the countries of the Group of 77, actively coordinated their positions and guarded against the dividing and demoralizing the developing countries by the developed countries, put to full use the negotiating strategies and skills and seized the opportunity to push in good time the negotiation process to a direction favorable to our position.