White House Statement on the Report on U.S.-Canadian Relations Prepared Jointly by Ambassadors Livingston Merchant and A. D. P. Heeney.

The President and the Prime Minister of Canada are making public today a report prepared at their request by Ambassador Livingston Merchant of the United States and Ambassador A. D. P. Heeney of Canada.

In their first working meeting in Washington in January 1964, the President and the Prime Minister agreed on the need for a study of the basic principles of relations between the United States and Canada. Later, they commissioned Ambassador Merchant and Ambassador Heeney to make this study together. The two Ambassadors made their report on Friday, July 9, and the President and the Prime Minister have agreed that it deserves prompt publication.

The President emphasizes again the extraordinary importance of close and friendly relations between the United States and Canada, which have lived together as the best of neighbors in two centuries. The President believes that this report is a serious and constructive contribution to still better relations between Canada and the United States. He has asked Secretary of State Rusk to take the lead for the United States in a prompt review of the report and its recommendations. The Secretary's review will be the basis for further United States action on this report.