WITH a stroke of a pen and a smile, US President Donald Trump has formally withdrawn from the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Sugar grower lobby group Cangrowers admit the loss of a "big prize” but said they would keep pressure on the Australian Government to forge forward with the TPP without the United States.

Chairman Paul Schembri said growers were disappointed that US President Donald Trump had chosen to formally withdraw from the 12-nation trade agreement process.

"A significant opportunity for us to gain increased access to one of the most lucrative markets in the world has been lost,” he said.

"The big prize that we have lost is an improved framework for selling sugar in the Asia-Pacific for the foreseeable future and the opportunity of moving towards selling up to 500,000 tonnes to the US in the future.

"We have been encouraged by the discussions between Australia and Japan recently and the Prime Minister's talk of a revised TPP.”

An agreement between the remaining countries - Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Chile, Vietnam, Peru, Brunei and Malaysia - could be possible but China is expected to fill the void created by the US withdrawing from the

TPP.

China was never invited to be part of the TPP and has recently been focused on a rival agreement called the RCEP.