Eight years in the making, the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal between Australia, the US and 10 other regional powers is as good as dead after the Obama administration walked away from its plan to put it before the "lame duck" Congress ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as president.

Controversial in Australia because it would allow US-headquartered corporations to sue Australian governments in extraterritorial tribunals and entrench pharmaceutical monopolies and copyright rules, the TPP was the subject of a last-minute plea by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to president-elect Donald Trump in their 15-minute phone conversation on Thursday.

It has been signed by each of the member countries - Australia, the US, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam - but ratified by none.

Other members including Australia were waiting for a decision from the US because the rules require ratification by members accounting for 85 per cent of the the agreement's gross domestic product, meaning it can't come into force without the US as the other members combined have only 43 per cent.