By Julie Pace and Jill Colvin

THE United States has pulled out of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, fulfilling Donald Trump’s campaign promise as he began his first full week in office.

As he signed and held up a notice in the Oval Office, the US President said: “Great thing for the American worker that we just did.”

Mr Trump also signed memorandums freezing most federal government hiring – though he noted an exception for the military – and reinstating a ban on providing federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option.

The regulation, known as the “Mexico City Policy”, has been a political volleyball, instituted by Republican administrations and rescinded by Democratic ones since 1984.

Following a tumultuous first weekend in office – consumed by Mr Trump’s criticism of the media’s inauguration coverage – the president sought to refocus on the sweeping, yet often vague, promises he made as a candidate.

He campaigned as a fierce opponent of multilateral trade agreements, particularly the 12-nation Pacific Rim deal agreed upon by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Earlier, Mr Trump spoke with business leaders and warned that he would impose a “substantial border tax” on companies that move their manufacturing out of the United States.

He also promised tax advantages to companies that produce products domestically.

“All you have to do is stay,” he said during a meeting in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Marillyn Hewson, of Lockheed Martin, were among the executives who attended the meeting.

The gathering kicked off a busy day for the new president, including an evening reception with politicians from both parties and a sitdown with union leaders.

Mr Trump ran for office pledging to overhaul US trade policy, arguing that massive free-trade agreements have disadvantaged American workers.

Since winning the White House, he has targeted companies that have moved factories overseas, vowing to slap taxes on products they then try to sell in the US.

Mr Trump said: “Some people say that’s not free trade, but we don’t have free trade now.”

The President also reiterated his campaign pledge to lower taxes for companies, as well as the middle class, “anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent”.

He also called for cutting 75 per cent of federal regulations and insisted that doing so would not compromise worker safety.

“We want to start making our products again,” Mr Trump said. “If you look at some of the original great people that ran this country, you will see they felt very strongly about that.”

He said the border tax would help discourage companies from firing people in the United States, making products overseas, and then moving them back into the country to sell.

“They’re going to have to pay a border tax – a substantial border tax,” Mr Trump said.

The president said other countries “charge a lot of tax” when American companies try to sell their products and he named China.

“You want to sell something into China, it’s very, very hard, in some cases it’s impossible,” Mr Trump said.

“So I don’t call that free trade, what we want is fair trade, fair trade, and we’re going to treat other countries fairly but they have to treat us fairly.”

The meeting included chief executives from a dozen companies, including Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin and Dell. Andrew Liveris, chief executive of Dow, said afterwards that Mr trump asked them to come back in 30 days with “a series of actions” that might stimulate manufacturing in the United States.

Mr Liveris said the group discussed the border tax, and who might be helped or hurt by such a move, while Ford chief executive Mark Fields said “it was a very, very positive meeting”.

The developments came after a weekend in the White House that included lambasting news organisations for reporting on the size of the crowds at his inauguration and mass protests against his presidency on the following day.

Mr Trump also announced he has set up meetings with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mexico is part of the free trade agreement with the US and Canada.

Mr Trump said he will also discuss immigration and security at the border.

He has promised to build a wall along the length of the southern US border, and has insisted that Mexico will pay for it.

Later in the week, Mr Trump will address Congressional leaders.