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And in these four requirements, it is only element (i), that the request “be in writing” has hardly been disagreed; and as to be discussed in more detail below, the other three elements (ii)- (iv) have often been the subjects divergent between participants on many occasions.
IIIndication of Consultations Process
In its second element, Art. 6.2 of the DSU requires that the panel request must “indicate whether consultations were held”. In this connection, the Appellate Body rules in Mexico-HFCS（DS132）（21.5）that:9
“
The phrase ‘whether consultations were held’ shows that this requirement in Article 6.2 may be satisfied by an express statement that no consultations were held. In other words, Article 6.2 also envisages the possibility that a panel may be validly established without being preceded by consultations.
Thus, the DSU explicitly recognizes circumstances where the absence of consultations would not deprive the panel of its authority to consider the matter referred to it by the DSB. In our view, it follows that where the responding party does not object, explicitly and in a timely manner, to the failure of the complaining party to request or engage in consultations, the responding party may be deemed to have consented to the lack of consultations and, thereby, to have relinquished whatever right to consult it may have had. ”
As found by the Appellate Body, “
n assessing the importance of the obligation ‘to indicate whether consultations were held’, we observe that the requirement will be satisfied by the inclusion, in the request for establishment of a panel, of a statement as to whether consultations occurred or not. The purpose of the requirement seems to be primarily informational - to inform the DSB and Members as to whether consultations took place. We also recall that the DSU expressly contemplates that, in certain circumstances, a panel can deal with and dispose of the matter referred to it even if no consultations took place. Similarly, the authority of the panel cannot be invalidated by the absence, in the request for establishment of the panel, of an indication ‘whether consultations were held’. Indeed, it would be curious if the requirement in Article 6.2 to inform the DSB whether consultations were held was accorded more importance in the dispute settlement process than the requirement actually to hold those consultations.”10
As a general rule, “it may be true that a request for establishment will be more specific than a request for consultations. However, we consider that Article 6.2 of the DSU is concerned exclusively with a party''s request for establishment. Thus, the consistency of a party''s request for establishment with Article 6.2 of the DSU should be judged exclusively in light of the specificity of the request for establishment, and not in light of the specificity of the party''s earlier request for consultations”. 11
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