A quick thought regarding today’s news that Toyota surpassed GM for the first time ever in global sales during the first quarter:

Toyota currently operates four vehicle assembly plants (with two more under construction) here in the United States. They’ve got facilities in Texas, California, Indiana, and Kentucky. The new $1.3 billion Mississippi Highlander plant is scheduled to go live in 2010. Toyota also runs two engine plants in Alabama and West Virginia.

Bottom line?

Toyota’s created a ton of good jobs here in the U.S. The actual number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30,000 jobs. And that number doesn’t include all the additional jobs created in those areas as a direct byproduct of Toyota’s hiring. It’s yet another example heralding the benefits of free trade.

The real story is that Toyota is a great example of insourcing—of course made possible by free trade.