After Mr Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Australia hopes to salvage the pact by encouraging China and other Asian nations into the agreement, its trade minister said on Tuesday.

The trade deal, which the United States had signed but not ratified, was a pillar of former US President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted it as an engine of economic reform, as well as a counter-weight to a rising China, which is not a TPP member.

TPP member Australia said China and Indonesia could join in the vacuum left by the United Sates. The TPP had yet to come into force with many countries still to ratify it.

"The original architecture was to enable other countries to join," Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.

"Certainly I know that Indonesia has expressed interest and there would be scope for China if we are able to reformulate it," said Ciobo.

New Zealand's trade minister said ministers from the remaining TPP countries would meet in the next few months to discuss how to save the trade deal, which was seen in Asia as a counterbalance to China's rising influence.

The remaining 11 TPP nations are Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.