New US President Donald Trump has taken an executive action to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, carrying out one of his campaign pledges.

"Great thing for the American worker, what we just did," Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed the order, said a CNN report.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a 12-nation deal that had been negotiated under former President Barack Obama. The TPP -- which includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei -- would have slashed tariffs for American imports and exports with those countries. In exchange, the US had negotiated labour, environmental and intellectual property protections that major businesses sought.

The deal's critics complained that it didn't directly address the issue of currency manipulation, a CNN report said.

Because the TPP hadn't taken effect, there will be no immediate impact. Congress had not yet approved the TPP -- its fate was bleak on Capitol Hill no matter what the White House did -- and the deal had not yet taken effect, CNN said. However, by pulling the US out of the deal, Trump fulfilled a campaign promise and ended all hopes for a deal Obama wanted as a major part of his legacy.

Trump hopes that, through his negotiating prowess, force of will and willingness to walk away from the table, he can convince other countries to accept terms that previous presidents -- from George H W Bush and Bill Clinton on Nafta to Barack Obama on the TPP -- have not been able to achieve, the report said.

Trump, who wants to boost U.S. manufacturing, said he would seek one-on-one trade deals with countries that would allow the United States to quickly terminate them in 30 days "if somebody misbehaves."

"We're going to stop the ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country and taken companies out of our country," the Republican president said as he met with union leaders in the White House's Roosevelt Room.

Big businesses have criticised the move saying that Trump is undercutting their ability to sell to the vast majority of the world's consumers -- a particularly damaging move if manufacturing jobs that have already left the US are gone for good.

Labor groups are sure to celebrate the move. They've long argued it would continue a trend of shifting American manufacturing jobs overseas to nations with lower wages and fewer labor protections.

Businesses will, however, lose access to potential new markets. US automakers hoped to see tariffs slashed in Asia. Farmers were set to see the removal of trade taxes that currently prevent them from selling products, particularly poultry, overseas. Pharmaceutical drug-makers had received years of patent protection that would have lessened the competition from generics in Asia. And tech companies, from Google to cell phone providers, sought to lessen regulations and gain entry into some of the countries involved in the deal.

"This decision will forfeit the opportunity to promote American exports, reduce trade barriers, open new markets, and protect American invention and innovation," Arizona Senator John McCain said in a statement.