The government may raise its export tax on timber in response to protectionist measures taken by its trading partners, Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said Wednesday.

Russia has put off raising the tariff, originally planned for Jan. 1, 2009, as well as “the introduction of a mechanism that would allow for more timber processing in Russia,” Trutnev said.

“We’ve done this at the request of our economic partners,” he said. “But if in response, they put up barriers to our products. We’re not likely to feel the need to continue defending them quite so attentively.”