US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order formally withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, following through on a promise from his presidential campaign.

"We've been talking about this for a long time," Trump said as he signed the executive order in an Oval Office ceremony on Monday.

He also called the order a "great thing for the American worker".

In the same ceremony, Trump also signed an order imposing a federal hiring freeze and a directive banning US non-governmental organisations receive federal funding from providing abortions abroad.

Promoted by Washington and signed by 12 countries in 2015, the TPP had yet to go into effect and US withdrawal is likely to sound its death knell.

Its signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Brunei. They together represent 40 percent of the world economy.