The objective of this article is to analyze the adjustment costs for the Valle del Cauca industry during 1975-2014, considering the department´s foreign trade pattern. For this, the Brülhart index is calculated in order to analyze the marginal intra-industry trade, and its relation with the adjustment costs within the department´s industry. One of the main results show that commercial relations evolved up till 2009 towards an intra-industrial pattern, but after this year, due to the international financial crisis, the pattern shifted towards and inter-industry trade, which meant larger adjustment costs for the end of the period.