Posted at: 01/05/2012 11:02 PM | Updated at: 01/05/2012 11:19 PM

By: Dayna Landgrebe

The push to keep producing products that are made in America brought U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar to the Duluth Pack on Wednesday. She toured the outdoor-gear store's manufacturing site at 1601 W. Superior Street.

The stop is part of a two-day Made in America tour of northern Minnesota. Klobuchar made stops on Wednesday and Thursday to the Brainerd-Baxter area, Park Rapids, Bemidji, Grand Rapids and Duluth. She said Duluth Pack is a great example of local growth that has international appeal.

"We need to export to the world. We need to think and invent. We can no longer have an economy that relies on churning money on Wall Street," Klobuchar said. "Duluth Pack shows us how we can get it done."

Klobuchar serves as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion. She said that businesses should be rewarded for their efforts to hire locally and create a product that benefits regional resources.

"I think we need to do even more, and we need to make some tax reforms that are focused on growing business," Klobuchar said, "and that we can compete in the world economy and that we employ people right here in America. This is a great example of how we can do it."

Klobuchar also recently introduced the "Innovate America Act" to promote innovation and boost America's ability to compete in the global economy.