U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal as he starts his first full week in office. The Trans-Pacific Partnership had been negotiated since 2009 during former President Barack Obama's White House tenure, but the U.S. Congress never ratified it, with numerous lawmakers opposed to or skeptical of the deal. It would have covered trade with Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Chile, Canada, Mexico and four other countries. The TPP would have been the biggest regional trade deal in history, covering nearly 40 percent of the world's economy and about a third of world trade. China didn't take part in the talks, but appears ready to step into the vacuum and create its own deals with Southeast Asian countries that would have been part of the 12-nation agreement. WATCH: 'We’re Going to Have a Tremendous Amount of Business Coming Back' In advocating for the deal, Obama said last year, "We can't let countries like China write the rules of the global economy. We should write those rules." But Trump, who took office last Friday, assailed globalization of the world's economy throughout his long run to the White House, saying U.S. multi-national trade deals cost American workers their jobs as their employers moved operations overseas in search of cheaper labor. Trump has pushed for bilateral deals between the U.S. and individual countries that had agreed to the broader pact. Even before announcing his run for the presidency a year and a half ago, Trump said, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an attack on America's business. It does not stop Japan's currency manipulation. This is a bad deal." The agreement would have cut more than 18,000 tariffs, including on all U.S. manufactured goods and almost all American farm products. The deal sought to end exploitative child labor and set acceptable work conditions on minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health. The new president said in a Twitter comment that his first week would be busy, "planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security." He met Monday morning with top executives from U.S. manufacturers and later in the day has a White House meeting set with union leaders and a contingent of workers. At the start of the meeting with the business leaders, Trump assured them of his intent to streamline government. "The regulations are going to be cut massively and the taxes way down," he said. WATCH: President Trump on regulations But he warned the business executives to not move their operations to other countries, saying they would face a hefty tariff if they manufacture products elsewhere and then attempt to bring them back across the border to sell in the U.S. Trump says he is not against trade deals, but wants more favorable terms for the United States that benefit its workers. The American leader says he also wants to redraft the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. Meeting with Mexican president At a swearing-in ceremony for top White House advisers Sunday, Trump said he will discuss NAFTA, immigration and border security as he meets January 31 with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The White House said he also plans to meet soon with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "I think we're going to have a very good result for Mexico, for the United States, and for everyone involved," Trump said Sunday. Trump vowed during the campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to thwart illegal immigration that he said would be paid for by Mexico. Pena Nieto has dismissed the idea that his government would provide the funding, calling it "ridiculous." Trump's busy schedule Monday also includes a meeting with congressional leaders and one-on-one discussions with House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan as the new administration and Republicans in Congress embark on attempts to overturn many of Obama's actions. It is the first time in more than a decade that Republicans have controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House. On Friday, just hours after his inauguration, Trump signed an order setting in motion his intent to try to promptly repeal Obama's signature health care reforms. Before his meetings with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, Trump will host talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May Friday in the Oval Office. May has said she wants to focus on post-Brexit trade talks, NATO and fighting terrorism. Women's march In other developments, Trump used his Twitter account Sunday to mock the hundreds of thousands of people who protested the start of his presidency Saturday in Washington and other major cities in the U.S. and overseas. "Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly," Trump wrote. Those celebrities included feminist icon Gloria Steinem, pop star Madonna and actress Scarlett Johansson. They were among those who attended the Women's March on Washington as a rebuke to Trump's inauguration as the country's 45th president. Two hours later, Trump said in another tweet: "Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views." Trump's first two days in office got off to a rocky start, with the president boasting falsely about the size of the crowd that attended his swearing-in. White House spokesman Sean Spicer later offered inflated claims about the crowd. On Sunday, one of Trump's aides, Kellyanne Conway, described Spicer's assessment of the crowd size as "alternative facts."